Contact lens-related injuries send approximately 17,000 children and teens to emergency departments in the US each year according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics.
This amounts to a quarter of the approximate 70,000 visits by children and teens to US emergency departments because of problems related to medical devices.
The study by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) observed that typical problems included infections and corneal abrasions. The researchers are now trying to determine how and why the problems occurred and how often they also happen in adults. The FDA may issue device warnings depending on the findings.
However, the results of an unrelated large-scale trial suggested that use of soft lenses in the 8-13 age group was associated with lower risk of corneal infiltrative events or infections when compared to teenage and young adult patients. Dr Robin Chalmers' study, presented at the ARVO Conference (Optician 25.06.10), looked at the risk factors for significant and serious events in soft contact lens wear and related this to age to try to establish the upper and lower age limit beyond which the risk abates. Contrary to the view or expectation of many, its results suggested that younger children are much less of a risk group with contact lenses than their older counterparts.