Master Refractive Errors of the Eye with Picmonic for Medicine

Myopia is a refractive error that causes blurred distance vision.

Myopia is a refractive error that causes blurred distance vision. Due to the increased axial axis of the eyeball, the focal point of the eye is shifted in front of the retina.
Etiologies includes axial, curvatural, positional, index, and spasmodic myopia.

In myopia the retina is more stretched due to axial elongation and is prone to peripheral retinal tears. This may lead to rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.

Hyperopia is a refractive error that causes close objects to appear blurry.

Hyperopia is a refractive error that causes blurred near vision. Patients will have a decreased axial axis of the eyeball, thus shifting the focal point of the eye behind the eyeball.

In hyperopia, decreased axial length causes decreased space for the aqueous humor to flow. This can lead to intraocular pressure elevation and angle-closure glaucoma

Astigmatism is a condition in which parallel rays of light cannot form a point image on the retina due to the existence of two or more focal points. It is associated with an abnormal corneal curvature.

Normally, the cornea has the same curvature along all axes. If the shape of the cornea becomes irregular, 2 or more different sized axes are produced, resulting in different points of convergence, or focal points. This will result in scattering of the image and blurring of vision in all axes.

Amblyopia means lazy eye. If at birth, astigmatism is present, the brain will primarily use the input for depth perception from the normal eye. This leads to decreased nervous output to the abnormal eye, which may then suffer from amblyopia.