Purpose:
To determine: 1) the overall incidence of contact lens induced papillary conjunctivitis (CLPC) in low Dk hydrogel and high Dk silicone hydrogel (SiH) lens wearers, 2) the incidence of local and general CLPC in these lens types and 3) the effect of lens design in SiH lens wearers on the incidence of CLPC.
Methods:
A retrospective analysis of clinical trials conducted in Australia and India from 1993 to 2004 to evaluate the upper palpebral conjunctival response to extended wear (EW) of soft contact lenses. Lenses included both low Dk hydrogel on a 6-night (N) EW replacement schedule and high Dk SiH lenses on a 30N EW replacement schedule. Data from 517 patients from Australia and 1,040 patients from India were collated. Data from first events were reported. Incidence of CLPC was reported as the total number of new events/total number of patient eye years X 100 patient eye years (%). Patient eye years were the sum of the time in lens wear for all patients in the studies.
Results:
Table 1: Incidence of CLPC in low Dk hydrogel and high Dk SiH lens wearers and incidence of local and general events
Conclusions:
The incidence of low Dk and high Dk SiH lens wearers was similar (p>0.05). The incidence of local and general CLPC was reported for the first time. The higher incidence of local CLPC with SiH lens wear may be related to the higher SiH modulus, contributing to mechanical trauma of the upper palpebral conjunctiva, whereas low Dk lens types result in more general cases due to an immunological response to protein deposition. The lens design possibly has a significant effect on the difference in incidence of CLPC between the aspheric and spheric high Dk SiH lenses.
Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • conjunctivitis • eyelid