Pathological myopia (PM) is a leading cause of legal blindness in many developed countries, particularly in young people.

It is usually defined as an axial length ≥ 26,5 mm and/or a refractive error of at least -6,00 D and characteristic posterior pole abnormalities.

The prevalence of the disease shows a wide variation among different ethnic groups, being higher in Asian populations and lower in African and Pacific Island groups. PM is a complex disease affected by environmental and genetic factors.

Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) occurs in around 5% of the eyes with PM.

However, multiple other abnormalities occur in the myopic macula, such as lacquer cracks, macular foveoschisis, tilted disc with serous macular detachment, dome-shaped macula and intrachoroidal cavitations, among others.

The clinical spectrum is presented giving particular emphasis to the SD-OCT findings.