Orthokeratology

What are the risks involved with Orthokeratology?

The main risks associated with orthokeratology is that of microbial keratitis, otherwise known as corneal infection, either from bacteria or acanthamoeba. These can be present in the local water or our environment, and without proper care or hygiene, they can be introduced to the individual’s eyes. Although these can be successfully treated with the correct therapeutic medications, prevention is better than cure.

Easy and highly effective insertion and removal techniques of our corneal moulds and simple but comprehensive antimicrobial cleaning agents are incorporated into the cleaning regiment daily to ensure our patients are at minimal risks.

A clinical study in 2006 discovered that the incidence of microbial keratitis in orthokeratology wearers was considerably lower than in those who wore extended wear contact lenses (soft contact lenses that were worn continuously for upto 30 nights consecutively).

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Another study by Bullimore in 2013 concluded that the risk of overnight corneal reshaping over the period from 2005 to 2015 was equivalent to overnight extended soft contact lens wear and represented an incidence of microbial keratitis of 7.7 cases per 10,000 patient years wear, and a prevalence of 0.005% of 1494 subjects.(1) Overnight extended wear soft lenses represented a 20 cases per 10,000patient years wear of microbial keratitis.

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(1) Bullimore M.A, Sinnott L.T Jones-Jordan L.A, The Risk of Microbial Keratitis with Overnight Corneal reshaping Lenses, 2013 Optometry & Vision Science, 90(9): 937-944.