Monocular Axial Myopia following Neonatal Eyelid Suture in The Rabbits

Kim, Hae Won; Paik, Hae Jung; Min, In Sook

Abstract

The exact etiology and pathogenesis of myopia are not known yet, although various studies of the development of myopia in experimental animals have been made. Authors attemtped whether rabbits developed axial myopia by fusing their lids at birth in one eye, or not. The monocular vision was deprived by suture of upper and lower lids in 12 rabbits which were 5 day-old. The other eye was unsutured as the control. Ten months later, we assessed refractive error, corneal curvature, axial length, and intraocular pressure and enucleation was done. We observed the histologic change of sclera with light microscope. The eyes with lid suture were more myopic(-3.35 +/- 0.99D) than the controlled eyes(-0.21 +/- 0.46D) (p<0.01). The corneal curvature and intraocular pressure were not significantly different between two groups. The axial lengths of the sutured eves were increased(21.27 +/- 1.70mm) in comparison with those of the controlled(17.39 +/- 1.83mm)(p<0.01). We conclude the difference in axial length was caused by the elongation of the posterior segment of eyeball. since lens thickness, depth of anterior chamber, and corneal curvature were identical in both groups. These were correlated with histologic change that showed thinner posterior parts of sclera of the sutured eyes than those of the controlled eyes. The results of this study demonstrate that monocular lid fusion in rabbits produced an expenmental axial myopia.