Intraocular pressure by noncontact tonometry with and without soft contact lenses.

We compared the intraocular pressure of 43 eyes (23 patients) with and without soft contact lenses. Two measurements were taken on each eye while the patients were wearing their soft contact lenses, and then immediately after the lenses were removed. Intraocular pressure measurements were taken by noncontact tonometry. The results showed that the power of the contact lens was a significant predictor of the change in intraocular pressure. In addition, when the 43 eyes were broken down into two groups, those with hyperopic lenses and those with myopic lenses, the difference in intraocular pressure was significantly larger for the group with hyperopic lenses than for the group with myopic lenses.