A look at literature on myopia over the past 25 years: a personal review

Over 100 years ago, Professor Foucher of Université Laval in Montreal (Canada) suggested that myopia was the result of an interaction between genetics and the visual environment, implying a Darwinian response to our changing world. His words are still relevant today. Over 30,000 articles have been published since he spoke then. Have his questions been answered? What has been learned from this body of research, particularly in the last 25 years? The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific evidence on myopia and to give clinical significance to the results and conclusions presented. It is therefore not a conventional review. More specifically, this work covers the major trends that have characterised myopia research, allowing us to refine our understanding of the mechanisms leading to the onset and development of myopia and to assess the effectiveness of optical and pharmacological methods for its treatment. This is a clinically oriented text that helps to understand why the strategies used to treat myopia produce certain results but also highlights their limitations. It opens up new perspectives. Science has indeed answered many questions about myopia. But it has also raised many more that need to be addressed in future research notably to facilitate the most accurate prediction of the evolution of a particular individual and his or her response to a given strategy.