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Evaluation of contamination of used disposable contact lenses by Acanthamoeba
S A Sadiq1, A Azuara-Blanco, D Bennett
1Department of Ophthalmology, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University Medical School, England, U.K.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contamination of used disposable soft contact lenses with Acanthamoeba.
Methods:
We evaluated 51 consecutive disposable soft contact lens wearers in a prospective study. Before their check-up visits, patients were offered a free new contact lens in exchange for donating their old one. The used contact lenses (n = 102) were then removed and placed in culture medium for Acanthamoeba. We subsequently investigated patterns of wear and hygiene habits.
Results:
The mean age of this population was 32.6 +/- 11.0 years. The average time of disposable soft contact lens wear was 13.7 hours per day. The contact lenses were disinfected daily with commercial solutions. Twenty-five (49.0%) subjects did not clean their lens cases properly. Acanthamoeba was not isolated from any of the 102 lenses.
Conclusions:
There were no cases of Acanthamoeba contamination in a small population of disposable soft contact lens wearers who regularly disinfected their lenses with standard commercially available contact lens solutions.