[Contact lens wearers as candidates for LASIK surgery: two pitfalls to avoid]

We present two cases of persons wearing hard contact lenses resulting in corneal modifications which could have falsified the indications for LASIK.

In the first case the use of hard contact lenses led to thickening of the cornea which might have led to an erroneous indication for LASIK and an excessive thinning of the cornea. In the second case, the shape of the cornea was modified and the rigid lens masked a subclinical keratoconus.

Since corneal ectasia is the major complication of LASIK surgery due to excessive thinning of the cornea or LASIK surgery on an undiagnosed keratoconus, these two cases illustrate the importance of a pre-LASIK eye examination for patients wearing hard lenses several weeks after these contact lenses have been discontinued.