Purpose: We performed a prospective study to compare the surface deposits on frequent replacement soft contact lenses with deposits on conventional daily wear soft contact lenses.
Methods: We fit two groups of young myopic patients with either conventional daily wear or frequent replacement soft contact lenses. Subjects in both groups wore their lenses on a daily wear basis and used a hydrogen peroxide/catalytic disk based care system. Contact lenses were obtained from patients in the frequent replacement group after 1 month of wear and from the conventional contact lens group after 12 months. Contact lenses from each group were examined with scanning electron microscopy and surface deposits were compared.
Results: Frequent replacement lenses were covered with significantly fewer deposits than conventional daily wear soft contact lenses (P = 0.0003). No microorganisms were seen on frequent replacement contact lenses. Bacteria in the form of coccus on two contact lenses were seen in the other group.
Conclusions: Surface deposits occur less often on frequent replacement lenses but they cannot be totally prevented. Surface deposit related contact lens complications may be expected to occur less frequently with the use of frequent replacement lenses.