Extended-wear contact lenses for the treatment of pediatric aphakia.

The practicality of extended-wear contact lenses in the refractive correction of pediatric aphakia was assessed with 240 eyes in 184 patients. Patient ages at the time of contact lens fitting ranged from 18 days to 9.8 years. One hundred forty-one eyes were fit from 1 day to 55 months postoperatively and then followed for 6 months to 5.7 years (average, 29 months). Only five patients lost more than five lenses. The overall loss rate was less than one lens per year of follow-up. No patient had contact lens-related complications with permanent visual sequelae. Only 14% of patients had contact lens problems or factors related to parental inability to care for the lens which resulted in discontinuation of contact lens therapy. The authors were unable to identify any subset of patients who should be considered for primary surgical optical correction of their aphakia.