SURGEONS AT SOLIHULL Hospital removed 27 contact lenses from the eye of a 67-year-old woman who had come in for routine cataract surgery.
A report in the British Medical Journal detailed how the woman “had no previous ocular complaints” prior to the surgery.
The surgeons found a “bluish foreign body” inside the woman’s eye. This body turned out to be a “hard mass” of 17 lenses stuck together with mucus.
A further 10 contact lenses were then found following further examinations.
Specialist trainee ophthalmologist Rupal Morjaria told Optometry Today that “none of [them] had ever seen this before”.
She said: “It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together.
We were really surprised the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there.
Morjaria said that the woman had been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for the past 35 years.
The cataract surgery was temporarily postponed, and when the woman returned to get it done, she told doctors that was she was “quite shocked” that the contact lenses were in there.
Morjaria added: “When she was seen two weeks after I removed the lenses, she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable.
She thought her previous discomfort was just part of old age and dry eye.
She said that it was important that people who use contact lenses have regular check ups.
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