Cultures of contact lenses may sometimes identify the organisms involved in cases of corneal eye infection, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.“Contact lens wear is associated with a significant risk of microbial keratitis [corneal eye infection] leading to severe sight-threatening complications,” the authors write. “Microbial keratitis has been seen in all types of lenses, including rigid gas-permeable lenses, hard or poly-methylmethacrylate lenses and high-and-low-oxygen transmissibility soft lenses, as well as with all modes of wear, including daily wear, extended wear, therapeutic wear and continuous wear.” Patients using soft contact lenses are more likely to develop the infection than those using other lenses.
