ObjectiveTo investigate whether the corneal shape recovered after discontinuation of long-term orthokeratology and whether orthokeratology increased the corneal astigmatism and ocular astigmatism.MethodsFrom December 2016 to April 2018, a retrospective study was conducted on 33 myopic patients who had undergone two times standard orthokeratology in the outpatient department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and had stopped wearing the first orthokeratology lens for one month before fitting the second orthokeratology lens. A total of 32 myopia frame glasses wearers were selected by simple random sampling as control. The changes of corneal flat meridian curvature (flat K), corneal steep meridian curvature (steep K), corneal astigmatism and ocular astigmatism before and after discontinuation of orthokeratology were analyzed.ResultsAmong the patients with baseline myopia diopter of −0.25～−2.75 D, the average annual change of corneal flat K was (−0.03±0.21) D in the frame glasses group and (−0.24±0.14) D in the orthokeratology group, the difference was statistically significant (t=5.555, P<0.001). Among the patients with baseline myopia diopter of −0.25～−2.75 D, the average annual change of corneal steep K was (0.20±0.42) D in the frame glasses group and (0.15±0.20) D in the orthokeratology group, the difference was not statistically significant (t=0.785, P=0.435). Among the patients with baseline myopia diopter of −3.00～−5.75 D, the average annual change of corneal steep K was (0.29±0.39) D in the frame glasses group and (−0.01±0.20) D in the orthokeratology group, the difference was statistically significant (t=2.758, P=0.014). The average changes of corneal astigmatism were analyzed according to the difference of eyes, gender, age and baseline corneal astigmatism, the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05), respectively. For patients with baseline astigmatism absolute value less than or equal to 0.50 D, the astigmatism annual change of the frame glasses group was 0.00 (0.50) D, and that of orthokeratology group was −0.33 (0.48) D, the difference was statistically significant (Z=−2.301, P=0.021).ConclusionsThe flat K of the cornea becomes flatter and the steep K does not change after one month’s discontinuation of long-term orthokeratology. There was no difference in the increase of corneal astigmatism compared with those wearing frame glasses. When the baseline ocular astigmatism is less than or equal to 0.50 D, the increase of astigmatism may occur after discontinuation of orthokeratology.