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Severe keratitis risk less with silicone hydrogel lenses
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For patients who opt to sleep with their contact lenses in, physicians should recommend they use silicone hydrogel lenses, which carry a fives times decreased risk of severe keratitis development than extended wear hydrogel lenses, according to a study.
Philip B. Morgan and colleagues at the University of Manchester, England, prospectively studied 118 contact lens wearers who presented with a corneal infiltrate/ulcer at a hospital center in Manchester over the course of 12 months. The researchers differentiated between non-severe keratitis and severe keratitis based on the severity of signs and symptoms.
Of the patients, 80 presented with non-severe keratitis and 38 presented with severe keratitis. The annual severe keratitis incidence per 10,000 contact lens wearers ranged from 2.9 for those with daily wear rigid lenses to 19.8 with extended wear silicone hydrogel lenses. Daily wear silicone hydrogel lenses had no incidence of severe keratitis, and extended wear hydrogel lenses had the highest incidence, at 96.4.
The study is published in the April issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.