Contact Lenses News

LAS VEGAS — Although most contact lens patients place a high premium on their visual health, compliance behaviors fail to reflect this attitude, according to a study presented here. Rick Weisbarth, OD, noted several inconsistencies in patient attitudes and compliance behavior.

Bausch & Lomb has received Food and Drug Administration approval to add a cold oxygen plasma treatment to its manufacturing process of gas permeable contact lenses, according to a company press release.

SINGAPORE — A combination of polymers that were added to a common contact lens solution to improve comfort may be a key part in the Fusarium keratitis outbreaks that occurred earlier this year, said Donald Tan, MD, here at the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.

Bausch & Lomb permanently removed its ReNu with MoistureLoc from worldwide markets after company investigations suggested that the contact lens care solution’s formulation can increase the risk of a rare fungal infection under certain circumstances.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Bausch & Lomb is expanding the parameter range of its toric contact lenses, the company said in a release.

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration’s preliminary report into Bausch & Lomb’s manufacturing facility in South Carolina indicated the plant deviated “from FDA quality system regulation” in its manufacturing of the contact lens solution, ReNu with MoistureLoc, according to a report on the agency’s Web site.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Bausch & Lomb announced it is “permanently removing its MoistureLoc contact lens solution from worldwide markets effective immediately,” according to a press release.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, joint inspections between the agency and Bausch & Lomb into the company’s Greenville, S.C., plant should be completed this month. That facility was responsible for the manufacture of ReNu with MoistureLoc, a contact lens solution now at the center of controversy over its possible role in the confirmed cases of Fusarium keratitis reported over the past few months.

Health care providers are being asked to culture patients when they present with microbial keratitis and to consider the possibility of a fungal infection in those patients, in the wake of reports of fungal keratitis in the United States.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Bausch & Lomb has asked U.S. retailers to remove ReNu with MoistureLoc from their shelves temporarily until the investigation into reports of fungal keratitis infections among contact lens wearers in the United States is concluded, the company announced late last week in a press release.