Vasovagal syncope evoked by needle phobia when inserting a contact lens.
OBJECTIVE
To report a patient who fell unconscious because of vasovagal syncope evoked by needle phobia when he tried to wear contact lenses.


METHODS
A 16-year-old healthy boy had sometimes experienced dizziness when looking at the tips of pens. When he put his finger and the lens close to his eye to insert a soft contact lens, he felt sick and dizzy and fell unconscious.


CONCLUSIONS
Our experience suggests that patients with needle phobia may develop vasovagal syncope by concentrating on a fingertip when inserting a contact lens. We need to be aware of unconsciousness because of phobia when trying to insert contact lenses.
Mimura
Tatsuya
T
Department of Ophthalmology, University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, 7-3-1- Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655 Japan. mimurat-tky@umin.ac.jp
Funatsu
Hideharu
H
Yamagami
Satoru
S
Usui
Tomohiko
T
Ono
Kyoko
K
Araie
Makoto
M
Amano
Shiro
S
D000293:Adolescent; D003261:Contact Lenses; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009339:Needles; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D019462:Syncope, Vasovagal / Q000523:psychology*