Height growth timing may inform management of axial elongation in pediatric myopia patients

Children with myopia who were treated with atropine showed a link between the timing of peak height growth and periods of faster ocular axial elongation, according to a study.

Researchers analyzed 139 eyes from 70 children younger than 15 years who underwent serial ocular biometry and anthropometric measurements over more than 1 year. Participants were assigned to a control group that did not receive atropine or an atropine-treated group receiving 0.05% atropine nightly for axial elongation of at least 0.4 mm per year.

Height growth rate and axial elongation rate were not significantly correlated in either group. In children who did not receive atropine, peak height growth age and peak axial elongation age demonstrated similar unimodal distributions.

In contrast, atropine-treated children showed a broader distribution of peak height growth age, which was strongly associated with peak axial elongation age. Children whose height growth peaked earlier experienced greater annual axial elongation than those with later growth peaks (0.27 ± 0.17 mm/year vs 0.15 ± 0.12 mm/year; P < 0.01), despite receiving the same atropine dose.

Reference
Surl D, Han J, Seo Y. Timing of height growth peaks and axial elongation in atropine-treated myopic children. BMC Ophthalmol. 2026;doi: 10.1186/s12886-026-04954-y. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 42218416.