Contact lenses in Children

Kim, Tae Woo; Yu, Young Suk

Abstract

Use of contact lenses in children is much more difficult than n adults, and there has been some limitation to generalized application of contact lenses in children. To investigate the practicability of contact lenses in children and find the ways that could help to improve the compliance to contact lens, we reviewed 124 eyes of 120 patients who underwent contact lens treatment between 1987 to 1996 and inspected the compliance and side effects of contact lens, and the factors that influenced the compliance. The age of the patients ranged from 2.9 months to 9.7 years(average, 49 months)at the time of their first fitting. Contact lens has been applied in the patients with aphakia, anisometropia, high myopia, post-traumatic astigmatism and the types of lens included extended-wear soft lens(EWSL), daily-wear soft lens and rigid gas permeable(RGP) lens. Average follow-up duration was 36.9 month. Seventy-nine patients(65.8%) were fit successfully until the last follow-up examination and 25 patients of these(31.6%) experienced complications such as corneal erosion, conjunctival injection. Ten patients(8.3%) were fit well initially but discontinued the treatment due to poor cooperation of the patient, frequent loss or break of lenses, or complication such as frequent conjunctival infection. Thirty-one patients could not adapt to lens treatment. The compliance was influenced by age, type of lens and the residence of the patients, whereas sex or class of disease had no significant influence on the compliance. The frequency of lens exchange was reduced with duration of lens treatment and EWSL were purchased most frequently. The incidence of side effects was highest with EWSL. In conclusion, our study showed that the compliance to contact lens in children is not bad and consideration of the factors that can affect the compliance can improve fitting in children.