Bausch & Lomb CW 79 aphakic extended wear contact lens: long-term follow-up.

PURPOSE: The purpose of our study was to assess the long-term tolerance of aphakic contact lenses in an elderly male population.

METHODS

We conducted a follow-up study of Bausch & Lomb CW 79 aphakic extended wear contact lenses fit since 1982. A total of 109 patients (115 eyes) were identified. Records of 37 patients (43 eyes) were available to determine the course of contact lens wear.

RESULTS

Thirty-six eyes were contact lens dropouts. The average time to failure was 22 months. Seventeen eyes from the failure group elected to receive secondary intraocular lenses (IOLs). Seven eyes were still wearing CW 79 contact lenses at the conclusion of the study. The average length of wear in these seven eyes was 91 months.

CONCLUSIONS

We concluded that the CW 79 aphakic extended wear contact lenses were successful in selected cases. However, a high failure rate was found on long-term follow-up, and approximately half of the failure were converted to secondary IOLs.