Feasibility of extended wear lens use in chlorinated swimming pools

A group of 14 active swimmers was studied to evaluate corneal and conjunctival health immediately after extended wear contact lenses were worn in a chlorinated swimming pool. Two different lenses, a high (70%) and a low (38%) water content, were used for each subject in order to compare the corneal response to the high and low water content lenses. No significant difference in corneal and conjunctival response was found between the two lenses. Statistically significant differences were seen in corneal thickness and halo size between swimming with and without contact lenses. Corneal superficial erosion was of greater concern under both the control and test conditions, but this is believed to be due to unforeseen experimental design errors. The frequency of contact lens loss in this study was 3.57%. Hence, the conclusion that the rate of loss of hydrophilic lenses in a swimming situation is not the only concern in regard to lens wear during swimming, but there are other important factors such as lens adherence to the cornea and bacterial contamination of the lenses that need to be studied further.