A 10-year retrospective study on the prevalence and biometric characteristics of high myopia in Chinese cataract surgery candidates.

To evaluate the prevalence of high myopia in Chinese cataract surgery candidates and analyse their biometric characteristics, we conducted a 10-year retrospective consecutive case series of 17,325 cataract patients (22,479 eyes) classified by axial length (AL) into a high myopia group (defined as an AL ≥ 26.00 mm) and a non-high myopia group. A total of 2943 eyes (13.1%) had high myopia, with the highest prevalence of high myopia (41.2%) in patients aged 40-49 years. In the high myopia group, the mean age was 59.5 ± 12.6 years, younger than the non-high myopia group (68.9 ± 11.0 years, P < 0.001). The AL, corneal diameter, anterior chamber depth, and corneal astigmatism (CA) were all greater in the high myopia group than in the non-high myopia group (P < 0.001 for all). In the high myopia group, 12.7% of the eyes had flat corneas, and 67.4% of the eyes had moderate to high CA, which were higher than the proportions in the non-high myopia group (P < 0.001 for both). CA was positively correlated with age in the two groups (r = 0.165 and 0.274, respectively; P < 0.001 for both) after the age of 50. Fully understanding these characteristics may help inform public health guidelines and cataract surgery decisions for high myopia patients.