A
67-year-old woman scheduled for routine cataract surgery in November
thought it was just dry eye and old age causing her discomfort, she
told her surgeons.
But
what doctors at Solihull Hospital in the UK found to be the real
cause of her discomfort was much more concerning: 27 contact lenses,
stuck in the woman's right eye in a "blue mass."
The
incident was described in an article published in the BMJ earlier
this month.
Rupal
Morjaria, a specialist trainee in ophthalmology and author of the
paper, said the woman hadn't complained about any visual trouble
before the operation.
Richard
Crombie, a consultant anesthetist at the hospital, was beginning to
numb her eye for surgery when he found the first cluster of contacts.
"He
put a speculum into the eye to hold the eye open as he put the
anesthetic in, and he noticed a blue mass under the top eyelid,"
Morjaria told CNN.
That
mass was a clump of 17 lenses. The other 10 were discovered in an
additional examination.
"We
were all shocked," Morjaria said. "We've never come across
this."
Dr.
Thomas L. Steinemann, a clinical spokesman for the American Academy
of Ophthalmology, said he's seen patients have one lens stuck -- but
never 27.
"This
is one for the record books, as far as I could tell," he said.
The
woman had been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for 35
years, but it's unclear how long they had been gathering in her eye.
Sometimes, she told the surgeons, when she would try to remove a
contact from that eye, she couldn't find it.
The
patient had just figured she'd dropped it somewhere, Morjaria
explained, but it was actually getting stuck in her eye with the
others.
And
even though she'd accumulated 27 contacts in her right eye, the left
eye was fine. Morjaria said the right eye had poorer vision, which
might explain the imbalance.
Morjaria
doesn't know whether the woman had any appointments with an
optometrist before the clump was discovered, but she doesn't think
she would have had regular checkups.
Morjaria
said she and the other authors of the article want to raise awareness
about the possible consequences of wearing contacts without having
regular doctor appointments.
If
contact wearers know that they didn't take their lenses out and
they're feeling a "funny sensation in the eye," Morjaria
said, they need to get it checked.
Warning
signs of a trapped contact lens include sharp or scratchy pain, light
sensitivity and redness, Steinemann said. Dry eye has more of a
gritty sensation.
Steinemann
added that soft lenses, like the disposable ones the patient would
have worn, can act as a sponge to soak up bacteria, which would have
a "high likelihood" of infection.
The
woman's surgery was postponed after the contacts were removed because
of that increased risk, Morjaria said. She came back two weeks later,
feeling "so much better," and had the surgery she had come
in for in the first place.
CNN
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