Quote:
Originally Posted by robbill
Knotlob is correct, although with regard to the risk factors for infiltrative keratitis, the latest research (see Efron & Morgan 2009) suggest approximately a 10x risk compared to daily wear.
More significantly, it suggests that the risk of IK (i.e. the frequency) is statistically equivalent during overnight wear with both hydrogels AND silicone hydrogels, although the severity and course of the lesions were better in the silicone hydrogel wearers.
This goes against previous thinking which suggested that the risk (of IK) was lower with silicone hydrogels than hydrogels. It should be repeated though that the other issues you get with wearing hydrogels overnight (corneal hypoxia chiefly) are much less with silicone hydrogels.
You must make an informed choice and discuss with your eye care practitioner whether sleeping in contact lenses is right for you. Certainly it would be less than advisable in hydrogel lenses (including the 1 day Acuvue). For what it's worth, I refuse to fit my patients with overnight wear now since reading the more recent research articles. |
Hello robbill and welcome to the forum. It's always good to see Eye Care Professionals answering questions on the forum
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Thanks for that reference. It is interesting data on the increased risk associated with extended wear. I suppose it's a case of more information coming to light as more people switch to extended wear lenses (which are relatively new). DoctorG on this forum also refuses to prescribe extended wear lenses (without a very good medical reason). However, because some manufacturers sell lenses as extended wear, many forum members are reluctant to believe that extended wear mode for contact lenses is necessarily a bad/unhealthy idea.
It is interesting to see the UK studies broadly agreeing with the US studies as regards the risks.
For those forum members who don't want to leave this web page, here is a quote from one of the papers:
"Approximately 25,000 Americans develop infectious keratitis annually. The annual incidence of microbial keratitis associated with
contact lens use is approximately 2-4 infections per 10,000 users of soft contact lenses and 10-20 infections per 10,000 users of extended-wear contact lenses. Approximately 10% of these infections result in the loss of 2 or more lines of visual acuity"
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/798100-overview
knotlob