Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Sep 20, 2024; 14(3): 91497
Published online Sep 20, 2024. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v14.i3.91497
Retinoscopes: Past and present
Mutali Musa, Ehimare Enaholo, Babatunde Ismail Bale, Carlo Salati, Leopoldo Spadea, Marco Zeppieri
Mutali Musa, Babatunde Ismail Bale, Department of Optometry, University of Benin, Benin 300283, Nigeria
Mutali Musa, Ehimare Enaholo, Department of Ophthalmology, Africa Eye Laser Centre, Benin 300105, Nigeria
Ehimare Enaholo, Department of Ophthalmology, Centre for Sight Africa, Nkpor 434101, Nigeria
Carlo Salati, Marco Zeppieri, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Udine, Udine 33100, Italy
Leopoldo Spadea, Eye Clinic, Policlinico Umberto I, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome 00142, Italy
Author contributions: Musa M wrote the outline, did the research, wrote the paper, and provided the final approval of the version of the article; Zeppieri M assisted in the conception and design of the study, writing, outline, and final approval of the version of the article to be published and completed the English and scientific editing; Enaholo E wrote the outline and assisted in the writing, research, and revisions of the manuscript; Bale BI assisted in the research, final approval of the version of the article, and writing of the manuscript; Salati C assisted in the editing, final approval of the version of the article, and making critical revisions of the manuscript; Spadea L assisted in the editing, final approval of the version of the article, and making critical revisions of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article and received no funding.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Marco Zeppieri, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Udine, p. le S. Maria della Misericordia 15, Udine 33100, Italy. markzeppieri@hotmail.com
Received: December 29, 2023
Revised: May 14, 2024
Accepted: May 29, 2024
Published online: September 20, 2024
Processing time: 178 Days and 20.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Retinoscopy is arguably the most important method in the eye clinic for diagnosing and managing refractive errors. Advantages of retinoscopy include its non-invasive nature, ability to assess patients of all ages, and usefulness in patients with limited cooperation or communication skills.

AIM

To discuss the history of retinoscopes and examine current literature on the subject.

METHODS

A search was conducted on the PubMed and with the reference citation analysis (https://www.referencecitationanalysis.com) database using the term “Retinoscopy,” with a range restricted to the last 10 years (2013-2023). The search string algorithm was: "Retinoscopy" (MeSH Terms) OR "Retinoscopy" (All Fields) OR "Retinoscopes" (All Fields) AND [(All Fields) AND 2013: 2023 (pdat)].

RESULTS

This systematic review included a total of 286 records. Publications reviewed iterations of the retinoscope into autorefractors, infrared photo retinoscope, television retinoscopy, and the Wifi enabled digital retinoscope.

CONCLUSION

The retinoscope has evolved significantly since its discovery, with a significant improvement in its diagnostic capabilities. While it has advantages such as non-invasiveness and broad applicability, limitations exist, and the need for skilled interpretation remains. With ongoing research, including the integration of artificial intelligence, retinoscopy is expected to continue advancing and playing a vital role in eye care.

Keywords: Retinoscopy, Autorefractor, Refractive errors, Ophthalmology, Optics, Artificial intelligence

Core Tip: Retinoscopy is an important method used in the eye clinic for identifying and treating refractive problems. It has several benefits, such as being non-invasive, evaluating patients of all ages, and being helpful for individuals with poor cooperation or communication abilities. It is very helpful in the diagnosis of diseases like cataracts and amblyopia. New features have been added to retinoscopes as a result of technological advances. Contemporary retinoscopes come with digital screens, which make it simpler to analyze the findings. Others have combined the advantages of both with integrated autorefractor capabilities. Retinoscopes have evolved in the past decades to meet the current clinic needs.