Extended-wear aphakic soft contact lenses and corneal ulcers

A review of 100 aphakic extended-wear soft contact lenses is presented for the period July 1980 to August 1981. Four previously successfully fitted patients with either American Optical Company's Sofcon or Cooper Laboratories' Permalens for extended wear developed corneal ulcers either directly under the lenses or shortly after removal. Three of the female patients were well controlled diabetics without retinopathy, one of whom sustained severe visual loss and neovascular glaucoma after a pseudomonas ulcer. Another patient, who had developed a Seratia marcescens ulcer 3 months later, developed metastatic carcinoma of the bowel. Special attention to diabetic aphakic patients being fitted with extended-wear soft contact lenses is suggested.