A Visual Comparison And Patient Preference Of Silicone Hydrogel And Corneo-Scleral Rigid Gas Permeable Contact Lenses.

Background: Currently there are a number of options available for vision correction,
with one of the most successful options being prescription contact lenses. To date, many studies have been conducted investigating the advantages and disadvantages of the many different lens modalities. This raises the question as to whether there is a lens modality that can combine both the short adaptation period of a soft contact lens with the superior optical clarity and physiological advantages of a RGP contact lens. Regarding RGP's, experience has shown that comfort levels improve with adaptation, but it is still quite unclear as to the role of the cornea and lids in the adaptation process. 4 ,5 Therefore, it is proposed that a large diameter RGP, which provides much less contact lens/lid and corneal interaction, could combine the advantages of both the RGP and soft contact lens into a single contact lens design. Methods: In order to assess visual performance and subjective patient preference, we fit
20 patients with both soft contact lenses and a corneo-scleral RGP's. Results: This study revealed a very mild difference in objective acuity between the two contact lenses with Air Optix being superior in each of the six means calculated. The Air Optix was the preferred lens by the majority of the subjects, although certainly not a unanimous choice.
Conclusions: Based on a limited number of subjects and very few statistically significant
numbers we feel that both lenses have approximately equal potential for good acuity. We
propose that given an adequate adaptation period and proper settling of each respective
lens, the difference in visual clarity of these two lenses would be insignificant.