Importance of Axial Length Measurement in Routine Clinical Practice

When the refractive components of the eye namely cornea and lens do not adapt for axial lengthening during growth, it results in refractive errors like myopia and hyperopia. High myopia associated with axial elongation of the eye results in structural changes, increasing the risk of severe irreversible vision loss. Myopia is becoming more incident in the world, with recent research estimating that 30 percent of the world's population is myopic now and nearly 50 percent by 2050. Risk factors for predicting future myopia was previously found to be family history with one parent being myopic when children had axial length to a certain value at the age of six. It was also researched that longer axial length in the third grade was a risk factor to turn myopic in grade eight. Axial length measurements could be for purpose of predicting future myopia, assessing the pathological risk of current myopic error, and for baseline record to monitor myopia progression and control. This present paper proposes that axial length should be measured during routine eye examination.