Disinfection associated spoilage of high water content ionic matrix hydrogels

Chemical analysis was carried out on clinically obtained hazy white hydrogel lenses that had been exposed to hydrogen peroxide disinfection. Analysis revealed that hazing was a surface phenomenon limited to high water content ionic matrix hydrogels (type IV), the type associated with the deposition of large amounts of lysozyme. We subjected unworn lenses to cycling studies involving doping in a variable artificial tear solution followed by exposure to disinfectant; this allowed us to duplicate the clinical situation and to derive a mechanism for this phenomenon. Hazing proved independent of the presence of hydrogen peroxide but dependent on the interaction of lens-bound lysozyme and stannate anion, the latter derived from sodium stannate present in the disinfectant as a stabilizing agent. Hazing is restricted to the type IV hydrogels because only these polymers have a sufficient number of anionic binding sites and are of sufficient porosity to allow the penetration and binding of a thick layer of lysozyme. Lysozyme is essential to hazing. No other tear protein is small enough to penetrate the hydrogel matrix or basic enough to have a marked affinity for the lens and to provide binding sites for stannate anion. These findings highlight the unique vulnerability of the type IV hydrogel to interaction with trace or transient ionic constituents in tears and lens care solutions.