Patient information - myopia ( near - sightedness )

The eye is build like a small camera that projects the image of the environment on its inner wall. Instead of an electronic chip that captures the image, a light sensitive tissue layer covers the eye inside like a wall paper. It contains a dense array of photoreceptor cells which respond to light with an electrical signal. To see sharply, the projected image must be in good focus. This condition is achieved by matching eye length and the focal length of the optics with an impressive precision of around 0.1 mm. In myopia, the eye grows too long so that the focused image is slightly in front of the retina. One can no longer see sharply at a distance. An elongation of the eye by only one millimeter, from 24 to 25 mm, causes about 2.7 diopters (D) myopia (Figure 1).