27 contact lenses found inside woman’s eye
British surgeons were prepping a woman for cataract surgery when a trainee ophthalmologist found something horrific — a “blueish mass” in one eye that the doctors had taken for a cataract was actually a mass of contact lenses stuck in her eye.
The mass was causing the 67-year-old patient discomfort which she had attributed to dry eye and old age. Eye specialists initially discovered 17 lenses “bound together by mucus”, before a further examination revealed that another 10 lenses were stuck in her eye, Channel NewsAsia reported.
The case occurred in November last year but was reported in the British Medical Journal this month.
In an article in the journal, doctors said the patient had worn monthly disposable lenses for 35 years. “She had poorer vision in the right eye and deep set eyes, which might have contributed to the unusually large number of retained foreign bodies,” the article said.
“All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together. We were really surprised that the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there,” Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee ophthalmologist, was quoted by the journal as saying.
The patient’s surgery was immediately postponed after the discovery — the prolonged time for which the contact lenses were in her eyes would have increased the risk of endophthalmitis. “If we had operated she would have had a lot of bacteria around her conjunctiva,” Morjaria said.