Myopia

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7371.1035

BMJ 2002;325:1035 ( 2 November )

Letters

Myopia

Confusing myopia with hypermetropia is dangerous

Convergence might cause myopia

Confusing myopia with hypermetropia is dangerous

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ The front cover of the BMJ on 18 May 2002 included an important error. Above the headline, "Myopia: does reading damageyour eyes?" was a photograph of a man and boy with hypermetropia,the opposite condition. Hypermetropia, or long sightedness, iscorrected by spectacles with convex (magnifying) lenses that makethe eyes appear larger, as shown in the photograph. By contrast,myopia (near sightedness) is corrected by concave lenses, whichmake the eyes appear smaller.

Figure 1 of the article itself showed a girl wearing myopic spectacles, though the degree of myopia was only modest, about $-$ 2 D and certainly not the high (pathological) myopia referredto in the legend.¹ Indeed, the legends for figures 1 and 2seem to have beentransposed.

Doctors need to be able to distinguish hypermetropia from myopia. People with hypermetropia are at increased risk of developingacute angle closure glaucoma, an unpleasant and sight threateningcondition. . . . [Full text of this article]