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Use of contact lenses significantly associated with dry eye status
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DENVER – Dry eye status in patients who wear contact lenses was significantly associated with contact lens wettability, deposition and debris, according to a presenter here at the American Academy of Optometry meeting.
Padmapriya Ramamoorthy, BScOptom, MS, PhD, FAAO, explained that she and a colleague conducted a study "to quantify and assess differences in clinical and contact lens characteristics between normal soft contact lens wearers and those with [contact lens dry eye].”
They used data from a cross-sectional study that included 100 daily wear soft contact lens wearers – 50 normal and 50 with contact lens dry eye.
Researchers divided the participants into normal and contact lens dry eye groups based on tear break-up time, difference between comfortable and total daily lens wear hours and participants' responses to the Contact Lens and Dry Eye Questionnaire, Ramamoorthy explained. Participants underwent slit lamp examinations and had ocular parameters graded on a continuous scale.
Results showed that contact lens dry eye subjects had higher grades of conjunctival redness and folds, limbal redness, papillary conjunctivitis, blepharitis, conjunctival staining and corneal staining compared to normal subjects.
"Identification and elimination of such problems would be of vital importance in managing contact lens patients," Ramamoorthy said. "Reinforcing compliance with contact lens care would help reduce these preventable problems as well as prescribing frequent replacements of contact lenses to help these dry eye patients.
"Several significant albeit clinical minimal differences were observed between normal and dry eye groups," she concluded. "Contact lens wettability, deposition and debris are associated with dry eye status in contact lens wearers."
Disclosures: The researchers have no relevant financial disclosures. Jason Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO, has done research for Allergan, Alcon and Vistakon and received honoraria from Alcon.