Are Contact Lenses Safe? 'Lost' Lens Retrieved From Eyelid After 28 Years

Doctors removed a contact lens that was stuck in a British woman’s eyelid for 28 years, a recently published report in the journal BMJ Case Reports states.

According to the report, the now 42-year-old woman was hit in the left eye by a shuttlecock when she was 14-years-old and thought the lens had fallen out.

She visited the doctor after her upper eyelid became swollen and had no idea she had been carrying the lens for almost three decades. An MRI scan showed a cyst behind her left eye. On doing a surgery to remove the cyst, the contact lens was revealed, completely intact. The lens cracked while trying to remove it. However, the surgery did not harm the woman’s vision and she made a full recovery once the lens was taken out.

“We can infer that the lens migrated into the patient's left upper eyelid at the time of trauma and [remained there] for the last 28 years,” Dr. Sirjhun Patel wrote in the BMJ case report.

“The migration of a rigid gas permeable (RGP) lens into the eyelid is a rare cause of eyelid swelling. Spontaneous migration of a hard contact lens into the eyelid is a relatively known occurrence, but we were only able to find four reported cases of lens migration secondary to significant trauma,” Patel said. “This case report exhibits the longest time between traumatic RGP lens migration into the eyelid and presentation of eyelid swelling.”

The journal published a similar report in July last year about a woman who had 27 contact lenses stuck in her eye. The 67-year-old who visited a doctor for a routine cataract surgery did not complain of any symptoms. She thought the discomfort in her eye was due to dry eye and old age.

The doctors at Solihull Hospital, England, first found 17 lenses embedded in her eye and later found 10 more in the same eye.

Rupal Morjaria, the author of the report said Richard Crombie, a consultant anesthetist at the hospital was beginning to numb her eye for surgery when he noticed “a blue mass under the top eyelid,” CNN reported.

The lady told the doctors she had been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for 35 years and sometimes could not find it when she tried to remove the lens.

According to Vision Direct, contact lenses can damage the eyes if worn incorrectly. The lens reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the front surface of the eye and if worn for too long, it can also restrict the amount of oxygen flowing to the other parts of the eye.

If the eye continues to be starved of oxygen, red veins could grow in the cornea which can lead to the warping of the cornea and impaired vision. Other potential complications include corneal abrasions, eye infection, dry eyes and corneal ulcers.

In order to prevent damages from contact lens, it is always recommended to follow the advice of your ophthalmologist which includes details about how long to wear it and how frequently to replace it.

Since bacteria develops on the front and back of contact lenses due to regular use, contact lens solutions should be used to disinfect the lenses after using them.