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Study: Short-term miniscleral contact lens wear does not induce corneal edema
Patients who wear miniscleral contact lenses may experience minor corneal shape changes, but not significant corneal edema, according to a study published in Contact Lens & Anterior Eye.
Vincent and colleagues utilized Scheimpflug imaging to analyze the corneal fluctuations of 10 healthy participants with a mean age of 27±5 years. Imaging was taken before contact lens wear, as well as immediately following 3 hours of wear and 3 hours after that.
They also measured baseline diurnal changes on a control day to assess natural variations without contact lens wear.
Results showed that participants experienced "small but significant" corneal flattening immediately following 3 hours of miniscleral contact lens wear. Measurements returned to baseline levels by 3 hours after the lenses were removed.
Additionally, researchers found that corneal swelling after the lenses were removed was not associated with central corneal clearance. Researchers did observe, in the 3 hours following lens removal, corneal thinning and posterior surface flattening; they determined that the amount of corneal thinning was correlated with the magnitude of posterior corneal flattening.
"Flattening of the anterior corneal surface was observed immediately following lens wear, while ‘rebound’ thinning and flattening of the posterior surface was evident following the recovery period," they concluded. "Modern miniscleral contact lenses that vault the cornea may slightly influence corneal shape and power but do not induce clinically significant corneal edema during short-term wear."