Practical use and prescription of ocular medications in children and infants

Optometrists in Australia employ ophthalmic medicines in their paediatric practice to assist clinical diagnosis and to treat ocular conditions. Prior to employing ocular medicines or initiating treatment, it is important to consider the risks versus benefits of ophthalmic medicines and determine the minimum dose required to safely achieve a diagnostic or therapeutic benefit. Instilling drops in infants and young children may require techniques that do not depend on full cooperation, particularly to maintain appropriate dosing and limit the rate of elimination from the eye. Diagnostic cycloplegic agents are highly recommended for the accurate determination of refractive error in infants and young children. Topical atropine is commonly prescribed in paediatric optometry practice in highly variable concentrations. 1% atropine eye drops are used for pharmacological penalisation in management of amblyopia, and, increasingly, low concentration (< 0.1%) atropine is used to manage the progression of childhood myopia. Doses of topical ocular medicines to treat inflammation, infection or glaucoma are generally identical to those use in adults; however, there is potential for increased ocular and systemic side effects with certain medications. It is, therefore, timely to present, summarise and comment on the use of ophthalmic diagnostic and therapeutic agents in children and reference where practitioners can look for more detailed information. The perspective is set in the Australian context of a collaborative approach between paediatric optometry and ophthalmology eye care practitioners for delivery of best practice care in infants and young children. Inclusion of the more complex spectrum of paediatric eye disease in a tertiary ophthalmological setting is provided to build practitioner knowledge of treatment regimens their patients may be using, even though management of these conditions lies outside their scope of practice.