Extended wear of contact lenses can compromise corneal epithelial adhesion.

The wound healing response of the cat corneal epithelium was examined to provide information on the effect of extended wear contact lenses on epithelial integrity. During the wounding procedure, a loss of epithelial adhesion in the lens wearing eye relative to the control eye was noted. This indicates a loss of epithelium-to-basement membrane adhesion which may be a result of contact-lens induced hypoxia.