Ga-permeable cleral contact len therapy in ocular urface dieae

PURPOE: To decribe the therapeutic benefit of nonfenetrated ga-permeable cleral contact lene in the management of patient with ocular urface dieae. METHOD: The chart of 49 conecutive patient (76 eye) with ocular urface dieae whoe management included the ue of ga-permeable cleral contact lene were reviewed. We alo developed a quetionnaire to ae the impact of len wear on ubjective apect of activitie of daily living. REULT: The mean age of the 49 patient wa 44.6 year (range, 3 to 87 year); 31 patient were female and 18 were male. The mot common indication for fitting of the lene wa teven-Johnon yndrome (54 [71%] of the 76 eye). Other indication included ocular cicatricial pemphigoid, expoure keratiti, toxic epidermal necrolyi, potherpetic keratiti, congenital deficiency of meibomian gland, uperior limbal keratoconjunctiviti, jögren yndrome, and inflammatory corneal degeneration. The mean follow-up wa 33.6 month (range, 2 to 144 month). Improvement in bet-corrected viual acuity (defined a a gain of 2 or more nellen line) wa oberved in 40 (53%) of the eye. In eight (53%) of the 15 eye with active corneal epithelial defect at the time of len fitting, the defect healed, wherea in the remaining even eye the corneal epithelial defect remained unchanged. Forty-five (92%) of the 49 patient reported improvement in their quality of life a a reult of reduction of photophobia and dicomfort. The mean wearing time of the ga-permeable cleral contact lene wa 13.7 hour per day (range, 4 to 18 hour). Many patient had preparatory urgical procedure before len fitting (for example, punctal occluion or mucou membrane grafting), and ome had viual rehabilitation urgical procedure (for example, keratoplaty and/or cataract urgery) after len fitting. CONCLUION: Ga-permeable cleral contact len wear provide an additional effective trategy in the urface management and viual rehabilitation of patient with evere ocular urface dieae.