Does dropout happen even with patients fitted with contact lenses for irregular cornea?

Abstract

Objectives: Different types of contact lenses play a primary role in improving visual acuity in irregular corneas. Although there are multiple evidences for vision improvement with contact lens patients still drop out of lens wear and choose other methods of treatment, surgeries, or discontinue the lenses. Materials and Methods: Three thousand two hundred patients who were evaluated for 5 years at a specialty contact lens clinic in a tertiary eye care center, but did not return to the clinic for over 18 months from the date of dispensing were identified as dropouts. Only 73 patients were identified as falling under this category of dropout. The reasons for dropout were categorized as comfort-related, vision-related, other reasons, and those who underwent surgical procedures. Results: Unlike previous studies, which included soft lenses, this study revealed only 2.28% (73/3200) of dropouts. There were 38 patients with unilateral lens fitting and 35 patients with bilateral lens fitting. The visual acuity was significantly improving with contact lens in these eyes. The clinical presentation of these patients was analyzed to know about their stage of disease while they dropout from the contact lens clinic. Conclusion: Although dropout of contact lens is much lesser in irregular corneal conditions, it is important for the practitioner to be updated with the alternate and latest modality of lens choices to satisfy vision-related and comfort-related issues of patients.