• Universitat de València
• AJI Ophtalmic S.A.
• Universitat Politècnica de València

• Juan Antonio Monsoriu Serra
• Arnau Calatayud Calatayud
• Laura Remón Martín
• Juan Luis Rojas Salegui
• Eva Larra Mateos
• Pedro José Salazar Salegui
• Manuel Rodríguez Vallejo

The study of the temporal progression of myopia is of great interest to both ophthalmologists and optometrists, mainly because of the high risk of diseases associated with this refractive defect. Experimental studies show that defocusing in the peripheral retina, beyond the fovea, can regulate the growth of the eye. For this reason, it has been suggested that the induction of a sustained peripheral refractive error over time may be an effective treatment for the prevention of myopia progression. Such peripheral defocus can be induced by means of different ophthalmic devices, including contact lenses. There are some bifocal contact lens designs that have provided therapeutically effective results. However, known bifocal lenses for myopia control have the limitation that for pupil diameters greater than 3.5 mm they cannot generate a relative peripheral myopic defocus greater than -1.2 D without simultaneously inducing a foveal defocus of the order of -0.50 D.

The contact lenses developed - based on aperiodic geometries - achieve better performance in myopia control than those obtained by conventional bifocal lenses, obtaining a relative peripheral myopic defocus greater than -1.2 D, and simultaneously a foveal defocus less than -0.55 D for pupil diameters greater than 3.5 mm. The technology allows myopia control based on the correction of myopia associated with the foveal vision of the eye in which the ophthalmic lens is placed and/or the generation of myopic defocus in the peripheral retina of the eye in which the ophthalmic lens is placed, to slow the progression of myopia. This is due to their novel design that allows the positions of the foci to be tuned to the set of construction parameters used. The distinguishing feature of these new designs is the way in which the different concentric annular zones are arranged in a non-periodic distribution.

The main application of the technology is in the healthcare optics sector for the design of multifocal lenses for the control of myopia.

The main advantages provided by the invention are:

• Greater peripheral myopic defocus and less foveal defocus for pupil diameters greater than 3.5 mm compared to prior art lenses.
• Lenses with aperiodic geometries generate a sharper image at all distances as they are multifocal in nature.
• The lenses generate images with fewer halos, as there is less chromatic aberration due to overlapping foci.
• The manufacturing equipment required is the same as that used for conventional contact lenses.

• Patent granted