Improvement of Subjective Symptoms and Eye Complications When Changing From 2-Week Frequent Replacement to Daily Disposable Contact Lenses in a Subscriber Membership System.

PURPOSE: Subjective symptoms and other eye complications were assessed and retrospectively compared in patients belonging to a proprietary membership system who switched from 2-week frequent replacement (2WFR) wear to daily disposable (DD) lens use. METHODS: Questionnaire responses were completed by all patients for a 5-year interval between October 2008 and September 2013 from 83 wearers in three Japanese clinics (59 female and 24 male; average age: 33.4±10.9 years). Complications were recorded for each patient at times of reexamination. RESULTS: Over the 5-year observation period, the 83 patients wore lenses for more than 26 months. The average duration of use of 2WFR lenses was 14.5±2.7 days/lens (n=83) and subsequently 1.03±0.12 days/lens (n=83) for DD lenses. Compliance with the duration of use was consistently good as monitored by requests for lens resupply in both wearing modalities. The subjective complaint of dryness tended to consistently show improvement by the change to DD wear: 18.1% vs. 30.1% (P=0.10, Fisher exact test). Among eye complications noted in each group, the occurrence of superficial punctate keratitis (SPK) was significantly decreased in DD wear: 9.6% vs. 26.5% (P=0.008, Fisher exact test). The main reasons given by patients for changing to DD wear were (1) "DD lens wear was more hygienic" (78.6%) and (2) "DD lens use is more convenient for travel/business trips" (64.3%). Comments after the switch in wear were (1) "easy and convenient" (95.7%) and (2) "I don't have to worry about expiration dates" on solutions (57.1%). Overall, 95.7% of wearers making the change answered as "satisfied" and "mostly satisfied." CONCLUSIONS: In the subscription membership program, which provided free lens replacement and/or reexamination, individual compliance with duration of wear in 2WFR wear cycles was good; however, these patients switching to DD wear tended to have improvement in their subjective complaints of dryness and objectively demonstrated a significant reduction of SPK at follow-up examinations.

Disposable contact lenses.

Disposable soft contact lenses are an alternative to conventional extended-wear lenses and provide an acceptable margin of safety and convenience for the wearer. The lenses are worn for one to two weeks and then discarded. Buildup of tear film deposits is minimized, and the need for cleaning and disinfecting solutions is eliminated. The long-term safety of disposable contact lenses is unknown.