Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Feb 28;52(2):1127-37.
doi: 10.1167/iovs.10-5757. Print 2011 Feb.

Tear film, contact lens, and patient factors associated with corneal staining

Jason J Nichols  1 , Loraine T Sinnott
Affiliations

Tear film, contact lens, and patient factors associated with corneal staining

Jason J Nichols et al. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. .

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine ocular surface and tear film, contact lens, care solution, medical, and patient-related factors that are associated with corneal staining in contact lens wearers.

Methods: In this cross-sectional/nested case-control study, in addition to the assessment of corneal staining with fluorescein, a variety of tear film and ocular surface, contact lens, and patient-related factors were examined. Poisson regression models were used to examine the relation between corneal staining and these factors.

Results: Data from 413 patients were eligible for the analyses described. The average age was 30.6 ± 11.1 years, and 277 (67.1%) of the patients were women. Several factors were shown to be related to increased corneal staining in multivariate modeling, including increased daily wearing times (P = 0.0006), lower income (P = 0.0008), lissamine green conjunctival staining (P = 0.002), contact lens deposition (P = 0.007), increased tear meniscus height (P = 0.007), and decreased hydrogel nominal water content (P = 0.02). The wearing of silicone hydrogels (as opposed to hydrogels) was protective against corneal staining (P = 0.0004). Notably, neither contact lens care solutions nor disinfectants were associated with corneal staining.

Conclusions: Corneal staining in contact lens wearers continues to be a frequent, but not well understood, outcome. These data suggest that contact lens factors (water content, material, wearing time, and deposition) are more generally associated with corneal staining than are contact lens care solutions or other ocular surface and tear film, demographic, or medical factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Overall distribution of summed corneal staining scores from 413 patient observations.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Region specific corneal staining responses of the 413 patients observed. The percentage of patients having any staining present in each region is provided in addition to the average ± SD response for that region.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Begley CG, Barr JT, Edrington TB, Long WD, McKenney CD, Chalmers RL. Characteristics of corneal staining in hydrogel contact lens wearers. Optom Vis Sci. 1996;73:193–200 - PubMed
    1. Nichols KK, Mitchell GL, Simon KM, Chivers DA, Edrington TB. Corneal staining in hydrogel lens wearers. Optom Vis Sci. 2002;79:20–30 - PubMed
    1. Guillon JP, Guillon M, Malgouyres S. Corneal desiccation staining with hydrogel lenses: tear film and contact lens factors. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 1990;10:343–350 - PubMed
    1. Kline LN, DeLuca TJ. Corneal staining. Int Ophthalmol Clin. 1981;21:13–26 - PubMed
    1. Kline LN, DeLuca TJ, Fishberg GM. Corneal staining relating to contact lens wear. J Am Optom Assoc. 1979;50:353–357 - PubMed

Publication types