Compliance with prescribed optical correction in cases of monocular aphadka in children

ABSTRACT

Compliance with prescribed optical corrections for monocular aphakia was investigated in 76 children aged below 15 years. In 56 children, contact lenses only had been prescribed; in 5, monocular aphakic glasses only; and in 15, both methods. Thus, contact lenses had been prescribed in 71 cases and monocular aphakic glasses had been prescribed in 20 cases. Only 44% of the children prescribed contact lenses and 55% of those prescribed aphakic glasses were wearing their optical correction when they attended the eye clinic. The parents of 27% of the contact lens group and 10% of the monocular aphakic glasses group indicated that there were no problems with the optical correction [s] for their children. Reasons given for failure to comply with contact lens wear included frequent falling out of lenses, loss of lenses, ocular redness and irritation, and others. In the case of patients prescribed monocular aphakic glasses, reasons included breakage of the glasses and refusal by the child to wear them most or all of the time. One factor in non-compliance is the concurrent requirement for occlusion of the good eye. The study also showed that there was often a significant delay between cataract surgery and obtaining the optical correction