Use of an ophthalmoscope for objective refraction of noncooperative patients

Refractive ophthalmoscopy was performed on 16 subjects aged 5 to 27 years. Subjective refractions were performed on both eyes of the subjects followed by an ophthalmoscopic determination performed under cycloplegia by the authors. A 0.94 correlation was found between the subjectively determined "dry" refractive error and the refractive error determined ophthalmoscopically under cycloplegia by both examiners. The results of the two procedures differed by 1 D or less 82% of the time. The results indicate that refractive ophthalmoscopy is an alternative method for objectively determining refractive error in non-cooperative patients with poor fixational stability.