Visual decrement with deposit accumulation of HEMA contact lenses.

The vision decrement associated with deposit accumulation on hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) contact lenses was assessed in 51 patients presenting consecutively to a large clinic. Both high contrast visual acuity (HCA) and low contrast visual acuity (LCA) (logMAR) decreased with increased deposition (Rudko classification). Apart from being consistently lower than HCA, LCA offered no additional useful information. Both HCA and LCA worsened with lens age, whilst lens deposition increased with lens age (p less than 0.001). No associations between any of the above measures and patient symptoms were revealed. In general, unacceptable vision decrement and deposit formation occurred after 12 months or 4,000 h of daily lens wear. Clinicians can use the data presented in this paper to reconcile vision loss with deposit formation in patients wearing HEMA lenses.