Are eye‐care practitioners fitting scleral contact lenses?

Abstract

Background

To determine the extent of scleral lens fitting worldwide and to characterise the associated patient demographics.

Methods

Survey forms were sent to contact lens fitters around the world, every year for 20 consecutive years (2000 to 2019). Practitioners were asked to record data relating to the first 10 contact lens fits or refits performed after receiving the survey. Data were analysed for those countries reporting ≥ 1,000 contact lens fits during this period.

Results

A total of 369,209 contact lens fits were recorded from 40 eligible countries, comprising 2,309 scleral lens fits and 366,900 other (non‐scleral) lens fits. Overall scleral lenses represented 0.76 per cent of all contact lens fits with significant differences between countries (p < 0.0001), ranging from no fits in six countries: Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore, to 5.9 per cent in Switzerland. There has been an increase in scleral lens fitting over the survey period (p < 0.0001), with the rate of fits increasing from negligible (< 0.50 per cent) before 2006 and then increasing from 2011 onward (p < 0.0001). Scleral lenses were fit to older patients (38.5 ± 15.0-years) compared to other lenses (31.4 ± 13.7-years) (p < 0.0001), this age disparity increasing over the survey period (p < 0.0001) and were more likely to be males (scleral lens fits 53 per cent, non‐scleral lenses 33 per cent, p < 0.0001). The increase in scleral lens fits is commensurate with the increase in related publications in the peer‐reviewed literature over the same period (p < 0.05, r² = 0.82).

Conclusion

Scleral lens use has increased since 2011 with these specialised lenses more likely to be fitted to males and older patients than non‐scleral lenses.

Key words:

• contact lens fitting
• scleral
• survey

Acknowledgements

The International Contact Lens Prescribing Survey Consortium contributors to this manuscript are: Patricia Magnelli, Argentina; Chi Shing Fan, Asia Pacific; Craig Woods and Nathan Efron, Australia; Mario Teufl, Austria; Christina Grupcheva, Bulgaria; Lyndon Jones and Deborah Jones, Canada; Polo Qi and Kah‐Ooi Tan, China; Šárka Bělová, Jitka Belikova, Jitka Krananska and Alice Pesinova, Czech Republic; Ole Ravn, Svend Erik Runberg and Raul Ramos Gomez, Denmark; Panu Taste, Finland; Florence Malet, France; Hans Jurgen Grein, Sebastian Marx and Heiko Pult, Germany; Ioannis Tranoudis, Athina Plakitsi and Aris Chandrinos, Greece; Patrick Cheng and Leon Sze, Hong Kong; Mihaly Végh and Edit Vodnyanszky, Hungary; Optik Melawai and Optik Seis, Indonesia; Ali Reza Jafari, Iran; Nir Erdinest and Philip Fine, Israel; Giancarlo Montani and Edoardo Marani, Italy; Motozumi Itoi, Japan; Jolanta Bendoriene, Lithuania; Jho Yan Chia, Malaysia; Jose Moroy and Ricardo Pintor, Mexico; Jeroen Mulder, Eef van der Worp and Marco van Beusekom, Netherlands; Wanda Lam and Geraint Phillips, New Zealand; Ann Elisabeth Ystenæs and Magne Helland, Norway; Jeanette Romualdez‐Oo and Carmen Abesamis‐Dichoso, Philippines; Jose Manuel Gonzalez Meijome, Portugal; Janet Casablanca and Edgar Davila‐Garcia, Puerto Rico; Simona Radu, Romania; Mirna Stabuc Silih, Slovenia; Anna Yeo Chwee Hong, Lee Kai Hung, Alex Ong and Danny Sim, Singapore; Byoung Sun Chu, South Korea; Jacinto Santodomingo‐Rubido, Spain; Peter Gierow, Oskar Johnsson, Anna Lindskoog Pettersson and Inga Lill Thunholm Henriksson, Sweden; Marion Beeler‐Kaupke, Switzerland; Guillermo Carrillo Orihuela, The Americas; Vadim Belousov, Russia; John Hsiao, Taiwan; Philip Morgan, United Kingdom; Jason Nichols, Joseph Barr, Martha Yanneth Gonzalez and Carla Mack, United States of America.