Objective Evaluation Of On-Eye Optical Quality Of Daily Disposable Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lens With Internal Wetting Agents

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the on-eye optical quality of a daily disposable silicone hydrogel contact lens with internal wetting agent.

Patients and methods

Study subjects were daily disposable soft contact lens wearers (N=20) who were instructed to wear daily disposable hydrogel etafilcon A lens (without added wetting agent) or daily disposable silicone hydrogel senofilcon A lens (with an internal wetting agent), for a week. Subjects wore their respective lenses bilaterally and disposed of the pair of lenses daily. At the end of the 1-week test-wear period, the on-eye visual performances of the lens and the ocular surfaces were evaluated. A wavefront sensor measured sequential ocular higher-order aberrations (HOAs) for 10 s after the blink. The aberration data were analyzed in the central 4-mm diameter up to the sixth-order Zernike polynomials. Total HOAs, fluctuation index (FI), and stability index (SI) of the total HOAs over time were compared between the two lenses. Ocular surface evaluation with fluorescein was performed following the wavefront measurement.

Results

The senofilcon A lens had significantly lower average total HOAs, FI, and SI (p<0.001, p=0.001, p=0.007, respectively) than the etafilcon A lens. After 1-week wear of each lens, corneal staining was observed in eight subjects (40%) with the etafilcon A lens and in two subjects (10%) with the senofilcon A lens. The senofilcon A lens had significantly lower incidence of corneal staining than the etafilcon A lens (p=0.041).

Conclusion

Quantitative sequential measurement of HOAs objectively showed the possibility of better and more stable optical quality with silicone hydrogel daily disposable contact lens with the internal wetting agent than with hydrogel lens without the added wetting agent.

Keywords:

• visual performance
• quantitative assessment
• surface lens wettability

Abbreviations

CL, contact lens; FI, fluctuation index; HOAs, higher-order aberrations; SCL, soft contact lens; SiHy, silicone hydrogel; SI, stability index.

Ethical Approval And Informed Consent

This prospective study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Osaka University Hospital. The study adhered to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants provided written informed consent after receiving an explanation on the nature and possible consequences of the study.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to data analysis, drafting and revising the article, gave final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

Dr Koh has had research supported in the past by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.