Infective keratitis in soft contact lens wearers.

Eight cases of infective keratitis are reported in wearers of soft contact lenses. Four of them had normal eyes and were wearing lenses on a continual basis. One was wearing a lens continually for therapeutic reasons. Three others were wearing lenses daily or intermittently. The four latter cases were using contaminated lens solutions. Two of the continual lens wearers lost vision to the point of blindness. A significant factor in their bad outcome was the fact that both lived in areas remote from adequate ophthalmic services. Serratia liquefaciens was implicated in one case. This is thought to be the only reported case of corneal abscess due to this organism in the past 16 years. S. marcescens was grown in another case from the lens solutions and carrying case.