Clinical Evaluation of An Upgraded Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lens During Extended Wear

Carol Lakkis, Jared Slater - Clinical Vision Research Australia, The University of Melbourne

PURPOSE: Silicone hydrogel contact lenses (CLs) are becoming increasingly popular for daily and overnight wear, due to their higher oxygen transmissibility compared to hydrogel CLs.  The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical and subjective performance of lotrafilcon A upgrade (CIBA Vision), which includes a visibility tint, inversion indicator and a comfort additive in the package saline, during extended wear (EW)/flexible wear (FW).

METHODS: A prospective, randomised, double masked, pilot study was conducted. 40 experienced soft CL wearers were assigned to wear either lotrafilcon A with comfort additive (test) or senofilcon A (control, Vistakon) CLs bilaterally on an EW/FW basis for 2 weeks.  Evaluations were conducted at CL delivery and 2 weeks (W), and a phone survey was conducted at 1 W to assess subjective responses.  At each visit, objective and subjective measures of CL performance were assessed.

RESULTS: N=37 (93%) completed the study and average wearing time was 4 nights per week for both CL types (p>0.05). There were no significant differences in distance visual acuity, corneal and conjunctival staining, limbal and bulbar redness and palpebral conjunctival papillae between the test and control CLs (p>0.05). At 2W, the control CLs showed significantly greater front surface deposits (p<0.05), poorer wettability (p=0.06) and reduced CL movement (p<0.05) compared to the test CLs. Overall, there were no significant differences between the CLs in any of the 100 point visual analogue scale subjective measures; at 2W, the test and control CLs were both rated highly with respect to overall comfort (test 82±20, control 86±20) and comfort on insertion (test 84±20, control 83±20) (p>0.05). End of day comfort scores were consistently lower than comfort on insertion scores for both CL types.

CONCLUSIONS: The upgraded lotrafilcon A (test) and control (senofilcon A) CLs performed comparably during short-term EW/FW and did not vary significantly in the majority of objective and subjective measures of performance. 

Supported by CIBA Vision