Contact Lenses News

STOCKHOLM – Endophthalmitis is generally considered the most severe complication of cataract surgery, but there are other complications that occur more frequently and have similarly devastating consequences, according to the Binkhorst Medal Lecturer here. Cataract surgery has become a safer and more effective procedure over the last 10 years, Ulf Stenevi, MD, said.

Contact lenses can interfere with the epithelial defense responses to bacterial antigens, according to a study by California researchers.

Bandage contact lenses can be used as adjunctive therapy for a wide range of surface and refractive disorders, providing surgeons with treatment options that promote healing and improve vision, according to several clinicians.

Patients with Bothnia dystrophy showed improved visual function from wearing dark-tinted contact lenses, a small study found. The results suggest that use of such lenses may benefit other groups of patients who have prolonged adaptation to darkness or cone system dysfunction, the study authors noted.

Advanced Medical Optics plans to begin shipping a multipurpose contact lens cleaning solution in the United States during the first half of August, and it expects to have the solution widely available to consumers by early September, the company announced in a press release.

Most complications related to continual use of lotrafilcon A silicone hydrogel contact lenses occur during the initial 3 months of lens wear, a study found.

The recent outbreak of Acanthamoeba keratitis and subsequent recall of Advanced Medical Optics’ Complete MoisturePlus marks the second global recall of a contact lens solution in the past year. Not surprisingly, the news has raised several questions and safety concerns regarding multipurpose contact lens solutions.

Both noncontact scanning slit pachymetry and optical coherence tomography can be used to noninvasively measure central corneal thickness in contact lens wearers without removing the lenses, a study found.

Sometimes described as “minimal sicca syndrome,” contact lens-induced dry eye, or CLIDE, forces a borderline keratoconjunctivitis sicca patient into a full manifest of symptoms and findings that is associated directly with the introduction of a contact lens onto the ocular surface (Figure 1). The lens acts as an obstacle and competitor to the natural tear film, which can cause a reaction in the eye and lead to changes in its natural tear film physiology and metabolism. This can lead to intolerance, inflammation and a compromise of the ocular surface. My special guest in this column is Kenneth Daniels, OD, FAAO, of Hopewell, N.J., to explain how to handle this problem.

Corneal topography and optical pachymetry may be better methods for determining ocular stability in soft contact lens-wearing photorefractive surgery candidates, a prospective study found.