In pediatric ophthalmology it is often necessary to obtain axial length in young children. For children older than 3 years, noncontact biometry can be used. For younger children this is usually not an option, and the clinician needs to rely on other imaging modalities. Depicted data curves in textbooks elaborate on few studies and limited number of subjects.

The existing literature regarding normal axial length for preterm infants and term newborns is summarized and critically appraised for number of subjects, relevance, measurement method and error, gender and retinopathy of prematurity. We obtained axial length measurements for a total number of 6,575 eyes in 27 papers published from 1964 to 2018 (9 papers with 2,272 eyes for preterm children, 24 papers with 4,303 eyes for term children). Initially, axial length increases rapidly: from a mean 5.1–16.2 mm in week 12 to week 37 gestational age. From 38 weeks, growth rate decreases from 16.2 mm to a mean of 21.8 mm at 3 years old. Male infants have a larger average axial length than females at birth; the difference is 0.24 mm (95%CI: 0.15–0.33, P < 0.001). We present a useful growth curve and formula that may serve as a reference for diagnosing abnormal growth.

在儿科眼科中，通常需要获得幼儿的眼轴长度。对于 3 岁以上的儿童，可以使用非接触式生物测定。对于年幼的儿童，这通常不是一种选择，临床医生需要依赖其他成像方式。教科书中描绘的数据曲线详细阐述了少数研究和有限数量的主题。

对现有关于早产儿和足月新生儿正常眼轴长度的文献进行了总结和批判性评价，包括受试者数量、相关性、测量方法和误差、性别和早产儿视网膜病变。我们在 1964 年至 2018 年发表的 27 篇论文中获得了总共 6,575 只眼睛的轴向长度测量值（9 篇论文，2,272 只眼用于早产儿，24 篇论文，4,303 只眼用于足月儿）。最初，轴向长度迅速增加：从第 12 周到第 37 周胎龄的平均 5.1-16.2 毫米。从 38 周开始，生长速度从 16.2 毫米下降到 3 岁时的平均 21.8 毫米。出生时，男婴的平均轴向长度大于女婴；差异为 0.24 mm (95%CI: 0.15–0.33, P < 0.001)。