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Study finds bloody tears on contact lenses
A random selection of used disposable and regular daily wear soft contact lenses was examined.
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While studying fungal contamination of soft contact lenses (Figure 1), we also observed that aging lenses developed cracks on their surfaces (Figure 2).
In this study, soft contact lenses were collected in saline solution. One sample contained free-floating macroscopic debris in addition to the lens. To determine the nature of this material, the saline solution was syringe-filtered into a Millipore filter. The filter and all of the contact lenses were then dehydrated through graded alcohol (from 70% to absolute) before immersion in hexamethyldisilizane. The lenses and filter were allowed to air dry. They were then mounted on 10-mm aluminum stubs, sputter coated with gold and viewed with an FE1 quanta scanning electron microscope.
Overall, we examined a random selection of used disposable and regular daily wear soft contact lenses with water content varying from 38% to 74% in saline.
We recorded on some lenses, free of fungal hyphae, the presence of sites composed of clusters of red blood cells. These were noted to be in close proximity to large surface cracks with jagged edges (Figure 3), which could have been responsible for the bleeding.
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| (Images courtesy of Frank P. English, FRANZCO, FRCS; Felicity A. Horne, B app Sc; William J. Perryman; and William J. Glasson, FRANZCO, FRACS.) | ||
For Your Information:
- Frank P. English, FRANZCO, FRCS; Felicity A. Horne, B app Sc; William J. Perryman; and William J. Glasson, FRANZCO, FRACS, can be reached at 113 Wickham Terrace, Brisbane 4000, Australia; 617-3832-4401; fax: 617-3839-6638.