Prevalence of pathological myopia in Upper Egypt

Background and aim Pathological myopia (PM) is one of the main causes of blindness globally, and its prevalence continues to increase rapidly over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of PM in the clinical population in Assiut City, Upper Egypt, during a period of 1 year. Patients and methods This cross-sectional study was carried out on a clinical population attending a large ophthalmology center in Assiut City, Upper Egypt, during the period from January to December 2018. All patients were subjected to full ophthalmologic examination. The noncycloplegic refraction was measured using an autorefractometer. The examined eyes were diagnosed as PM if they had refraction of more than or equal to −6 D spherical equivalent or an axial length of more than or equal to 25.5 mm. Results The study included 1548 eyes of 812 patients. Pathologically myopic eyes represented 152 eyes, with a prevalence of 9.82%. Of the total included patients, 102 (12.6%) patients had at least one pathologically myopic eye. Patients with bilateral PM represented 73 (71.6%) cases. Their refractive error ranged from −6.0 to −26.0 D, with a mean of −13.24±4.13 D, and their mean axial length was 28.2±2.14 mm and ranged from 26.1 to 35.2 mm. Conclusion The prevalence of PM in the studied sample was 9.82%, which was obviously higher compared with studies on other populations. Further large community-based studies are warranted to determine its prevalence as a step to overcome this true burden.