DALLAS Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas report that contact lenses, both rigid and soft, made from new hyper-oxygen transmissible materials are expected to reduce the possibility of bacterial infection better than contact lenses currently on the market. Based in part on these findings, the Food and Drug Administration recently approved hyper-oxygen transmissible contact lenses for 30-day continuous wear.
The results of the UT Southwestern study are published in the January issue of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Dr. H. Dwight Cavanagh, senior author of the study and vice chairman of ophthalmology and associate dean for clinical services at UT Southwestern, said study results provide a firm biological foundation for increased prospective safety of the new silicone hydrogel lens materials.
The significance of our study is that for the first time we have a scientific-based rationale that has passed peer review at high levels that exactly predicts our current epidemiological risk pattern and strongly suggests that these new lenses will be the breakthrough in reducing risk for infection that everyone has been waiting for, said Cavanagh.
Cavanagh said conventional contact lenses disturb the surface of the cornea, thereby allowing pathogenic bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to bind to the corneal surface cells and potentially initiate infection. The most significant and devastating clinical complications among contact-lens wearers have been corneal ulceration and infection, which can lead to permanent visual loss, Cavanagh said.
Until now, no apparent clinical progress had been made in ameliorating this critical clinical problem since disposable contacts were first introduced nearly 10 years ago, Cavanagh said.
UT Southwestern researchers examined risk estimates for contact lens-associated increases in bacterial binding by lens type and wearin
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Contact: Ione Echeverria
Ione.Echeverria@UTSouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5-Jan-2002