Bacterial assay of contact lens wearers.
OBJECTIVE
The goal of the project was to determine the quantity of bacteria on the contact lens and adjacent areas of the eye. This paper is a quantitative study of the contact lens and ocular aerobic microbiota in a mixed group of daily and extended wear disposable contact lens users.


METHODS
The contact lens, the lower fornix, tears collecting at the lower fornix, and edge of the lower lid at the Meibomian gland margin were assayed for the quantity of bacterial colony forming units (CFU). Eighteen patients wearing 49 disposable high water content hydrogel contact lenses were assayed and the mean lens age was 8.8 +/- 4.6 days. Three patients wore their lenses on a daily wear basis and 15 on an extended wear schedule. Tear samples were obtained with sterile microbial loops and the lens was macerated into small particles with a tissue grinder. The samples were poured onto the surface of chocolate agar plates and incubated at 35 degrees C for 48 h in 5% Co2.


RESULTS
The lid margin revealed the greatest bacterial presence (mean = 9.7 CFU; median = 2 CFU; mode = 0 CFU). The lens showed the next greatest presence of CFU (mean = 4.5 CFU; median = 1 CFU; mode = 0). The fornix and tears revealed the least bacterial presence (fornix: mean = 2.6 CFU; median = 0 CFU; mode = 0 CFU). The bacteria were coagulase-negative staphylococci.


CONCLUSIONS
The bacterial assay of disposable lens wearing contact lens subjects indicates that the lid margins are the greatest source of bacteria with the tears being the lowest. These studies support the concept that in the eye, the lens typically does not possess a large number of bacteria under normal conditions.
Hart
D E
DE
Department of Ophthalmology of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, Edward S. Harkness Eye Institute of the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York, USA.
Hosmer
M
M
Georgescu
M
M
Farris
R L
RL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018441:Biofilms; D003261:Contact Lenses; D005123:Eye / Q000382:microbiology*; D005143:Eyelids / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013666:Tears / Q000382:microbiology