Contact lens hygiene – a literature review

Purpose:

Contact lens hygiene is a crucial factor for a successful contact lens fitting and, above all, for long-term healthy contact lens wear. A review of the literature is intended to summarize the most important points especially in relation to recent publications.

Material and Methods:

A narrative literature review was performed to identify relevant publications. PubMed (www.pubmed.gov) was used as the platform for the search. The search term used was “contact lens hygiene”.

Results:

Successful contact lens hygiene depends on the effectiveness of the care solution, the instruction of the patient by the contact lens practitioner and the correct implementation of the recommended care steps. Basically, either multipurpose solutions (combination solutions) or peroxide systems are available for care. The advantage of peroxide systems is the higher disinfection performance compared to multipurpose solutions. For rigid gas permeable contact lenses, manual surface cleaning in combination with a surface cleaner is essential. The likelihood of occurrence of microbial keratitis is lower in wearers of rigid gas permeable contact lenses than in wearers of soft contact lenses.

Conclusion:

In addition, to hand hygiene, the selection of the care product and regular instruction of the user by the eye care practitioner play a vital role. From a hygienic perspective, daily disposable contact lenses are the safest option.