Vascular Response to Extended Wear of Hydrogel Lenses with High and Low Oxygen Permeability

Abstract

Subjects who wore lenses with higher oxygen permeability for 9 months of extended wear exhibited a lower vascular response of the ocular surface compared with subjects who wore lenses of lower oxygen permeability for the same period. This result was found both for the surface limbal vessels and in the deeper neovascular stromal vessels. Moderate neovascularization also developed after 3 months of extended wear of low-Dk hydrogels, whereas high-Dk lenses caused no neovascularization.