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Refractive Ametropia

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Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology

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Synonyms

Refraction; Refractive errors

Definition

In the ideal eye, an object located at infinity is sharply imaged to the retinal plane in the absence of accommodation. If the optics of the eye do not focus properly to the retina, it shows refractive ametropia. The most common forms of ametropia are myopia (nearsightedness)/hyperopia (farsightedness), where the image plane is located in front of/behind the retinal plane or astigmatism. Ametropia refers to all refractive vision disorders or errors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Experimental Ophthalmology, Saarland University, Kirrberger Str. 100, Bldg. 22, 66424, Homburg, Germany

    Achim Langenbucher

Authors
  1. Achim Langenbucher
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Correspondence to Achim Langenbucher .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Ophthal & Optometry,AKH, Medical University of Wien Dept of Ophthal & Optometry,AKH, Wien, Austria

    Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main Department of Ophthalmology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Thomas Kohnen

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Langenbucher, A. (2015). Refractive Ametropia. In: Schmidt-Erfurth, U., Kohnen, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35951-4_662-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35951-4_662-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35951-4

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