Dr. Katerina Kurteeva, an ophthalmologist from Newport Beach, California, shared a video of her pulling out one contact lens after another from a woman's eyes. She wrote on the California Eye Associates Instagram page that she had to remove a total of 23 contact lenses from the eye of the patient.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that sleeping in contact lenses was the most common offense reported by people wearing them. The woman's case is an example of forgetting to remove the lenses at night and then putting new ones in the morning which accumulated over time.
Removing Forgotten Contact Lenses
According to the Instagram post, the patient who is in her mid-70s put in a new contact lens every day for 23 days without taking the others out. She came to Dr. Kurteeva for a check-up for the first time in two years after experiencing blurriness of vision and pain in her eyes.
The doctor initially suspected a stray piece of an old contact lens could have irritated, or perhaps there is damage to the patient's cornea. But she did not expect to remove so many contact lenses from the senior patient's eyes.
Dr. Kurteeva began probing the upper and lower eyelids of the patient and did not find anything except mucous, Futurity reported. But using a speculum to keep the eyelids open and instructing the patient to look down, she was shocked to find the contact lenses stuck in the patient's eye.
She told her assistant to start recording the procedure after sensing it could be her "Guinness Book of World Records moment." She said that it was her first time seeing such a case in nearly 20 years of practicing her profession.
Even the patient could not believe it and asked if the doctor was sure about the number she was counting. She delicately removed the contact lenses using Q-tips and tallied them afterward. The video went viral straight away, and Dr. Kurteeva said that South America, Mexico, and Europe have been using her video to educate people about making sure to take out their contact lenses every night.
Fortunately, the patient did not suffer permanent damage from the stuck contact lenses and seemed to be doing fine after a month after the procedure. But against the doctor's advice, she continues to wear contact lenses.
What Could Happen if Contact Lenses Are Left in the Eyes Overnight?
Dr. Mary Ann Zastrow, an Optometrist in Minneapolis, wrote in an article in Downtown Eyes that wearing contact lenses can deprive the cornea of oxygen and wearing them overnight can reduce the amount of oxygen in the eyes, which leads to complications.
She explained that closed eyelids and contact lenses prevent oxygen from reaching the cornea, which results in hypoxia or oxygen deprivation. Moreover, eyelids protect the eye from dust and other particles so it is important to keep the cornea moist and free of impurities. But with the eyes closed and contact lenses on, microbes could thrive and increases the risk of infection.
A few of the complications to the eye from wearing contact lenses overnight include keratitis, dry eyes, and corneal abrasion. Doctors usually recommend wearing extended contact lenses that can be worn overnight for those who usually forget to take them out. Although, leaving them every night may also increase the chances of infection.
Watch the video below of Dr. Kurteeva removing 23 contact lenses from her patient's eyes:
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