Refractive behavior changes with six months daily wear of high and low oxygen permeability hydrogel contact lenses

Abstract

Introduction: The investigation of myopia and soft contact lenses is not new. Many reports show that the wearing of silicone hydrogel lenses as opposed to conventional disposable hydrogel lenses results in little progression of myopia in the eyes wearing silicone hydrogels. Method: Six subjects wore a silicone hydro-gel lens on one eye while the other eye wore a habitual disposable hydrogel lens for six months of daily wear. Fifty measurements of refractive state in each eye were taken prior to the subjects wearing a silicone lens in one eye and a conven-tional hydrogel lens in the other eye. After six months of daily wear another fifty measurements of refractive state were taken for each subject. Results: Although there is no statisti-cal support for the findings of this study, comet stereo-pairs are used to show the chang-es in refractive state for each subject. Four of the six subjects showed an increase in myopia in the eye wearing the silicone lens. Discussion: The increase in myopia in eyes wearing a silicone hydrogel lens is contrary to the findings of other studies.