Adverse events and discontinuations with rigid and soft hyper Dk contact lenses used for continuous wear

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative clinical success of hypertransmissible rigid and soft contact lenses in terms of the rates of adverse events and clinical discontinuations.

One hundred subjects (50 experienced wearers and 50 neophytes) were fitted with either the Z-alpha lens (Menicon) or the Focus Night & Day lens (CIBA Vision), which were worn on a 30-day continuous wear basis. The rates of adverse events and clinical discontinuations were monitored over 12 months.

There were 20 adverse events that were categorized as being serious or significant--four with rigid lenses and 16 with soft lenses (p = 0.003). There was no significant difference between the experienced (10) and the neophyte (10) groups (p = 1.00). There were 23 clinical discontinuations--13 with rigid lenses and 10 with soft lenses (p = 0.46). Fewer experienced wearers (five) discontinued than neophytes (18) (p = 0.002).

Practitioners should anticipate fewer adverse events with rigid versus soft lenses prescribed for continuous wear. Experienced wearers are less likely to discontinue compared with neophytes.