Hydrogel contact lens cleaning with or without multi-enzymes. A prospective study.

In a group of 66 daily hydrogel contact lens wearers, all lenses were cleaned and disinfected daily using a regular daily cleaner and a 3% hydrogen peroxide system. In addition, one of the lenses for each subject was subjected to weekly enzymatic cleaning with a multi-enzyme pancreatin preparation. After 6 months there were highly significant differences (P less than 0.001) between the lenses, the enzymatically cleaned ones showing less deposits and longer break-up time (BUT) on the lens. Also, comfort was significantly (P less than 0.05) better for these latter lenses. No adverse reactions that could be attributed with certainty to the preparations used were observed. The effectiveness of the pancreatin preparation employed in this study is of interest, since it has been demonstrated that enzymatic removal of deposits from hydrogel lenses reduces complications such as acute red eye reaction, contact lens-induced papillary conjunctivitis, and presumably also corneal ulceration because of decreased bacterial adherence to the lenses.