[Unusual complications after wearing hard and soft contact lenses]

In a clinical long-term study over a period of 10 years with 3850 patients wearing hard and soft contact lenses, unusual reactions of the cornea and perilimbal conjunctiva have been observed in 3% of all cases. Mainly corneal abrasions, cracks, clouds and mosaics have been observed, which were analyzed as being rare contact lens complications. The causes were lack of proper maintenance of the contact lenses, such as mistakes in cleaning and disinfecting the lenses, mishandling or toxic and allergic reactions due to cleaning and disinfection solutions. Only exact ophthalmological monitoring of the anterior parts of the eye and laboratory tests on the worn lenses permit differentiation between primary eye diseases and contact lens-induced complications.