Scleral lenses help manage OSD

Commercially available scleral lenses can help manage moderate to severe ocular surface disease (OSD), according to new research out of the Mayo Clinic. As a bonus, the lenses can improve visual acuity (VA) in those whose vision has been negatively affected by the disease.

Diagnostic trial lenses can make lens-fitting efficient, they added.

The scientists reached their conclusions by conducting a retrospective case series involving 346 eyes in 212 patients from 2006 to 2011. They reviewed medical records and analysed a survey of patients who had undergone the scleral lens-fitting process to measure therapeutic outcome, VA improvement and fitting efficiency.

The lens-fitting process was successful in 115 participants (188 eyes) of the 212 they studied. All but 2 of them experienced improved comfort, a protected ocular surface or keratopathy resolution as relevant to their therapeutic goals.

Participants also saw improved VA, which with lens wear went from 0.32±0.37 logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution (logMAR) with habitual correction to 0.12±0.19 logMAR (20/42 to 20/26 Snellen) (P

Patients most often were fitted for scleral lenses because of undifferentiated OSD, exposure keratopathy or neurotrophic keratopathy after having tried other interventions (average 3.2, range, 0–8). The fitting took an average of 3 visits (range, 2–6) with 1.4 lenses per eye, on average (range, 1–4).

Complications arose in 3 patients while they were wearing the lenses, but the complications resolved without VA loss, and the patients were able to resume wearing the lenses.

The study was published in Ophthalmology.