sjb@cs.toronto.edu (Stephen Bellantoni) (09/21/89)
I thought people would be interested in this.
From the New York Times, Thursday Sept 21, front page:
** Studies Urge Daily Removal of Any Type of Contact Lens **
Contact lenses intended for extended wear should not be left in the
eyes for even one night, researchers say.
Two studies being published today in The New England Journal of
Medicine found that users of soft contact lenses made for extended
wear were at considerably greater risk of developing an eye infection
that can lead to serious and permanent vision loss than were users of
ordinary soft contacts made to be removed once a day.
The two studies are the first to provide scientific evidence of
...
The studies were conducted jointly by Harvard University's
Massacusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston and Abt Associates Inc,
a Cambridge research and consulting concern.
One study of more than 500 people nationwide found that those who
leave extended-wear soft contact lenses in overnight are 10 to 15
times as likely to develop ulcerative keratitis as those who wear
ordinary soft lenses and remove them at least once a day.
"Extended-wear lenses should be removed and cleaned on a daily
basis" said the leader of the national study, Dr. Oliver D. Schein,
an ophthamologist at the Meassachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. "The
less often they are worn overnight, the less likely they are to cause
trouble."
The other study, an extensive look at the rate of eye infection in
five New England states, found that 1 in 500 users of extended-wear
contacts get ulcerative keratitis as against 1 in 2,500 users of
ordinary lenses.
The researchers estimated the number of infections among the nine
million users of ordinary contacts nationwide at roughly 4,000. In
contrast, they said that among four million users of extended-wear
contacts nationwide, about 8,000 would get ulcerative keratitis.
...