Print to PDF
  • About Us
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us

Contact Lens Update

Clinical Insights Based in Current Research

Search Our Site

  • Home
  • Browse Past Issues
  • Resource Library
  • Back to Basics
  • Useful Links
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Summary: Report of the Contact Lens Interactions with the Tear Film Subcommittee

April 28th, 2014

Download PDF

Ulli Stahl, PhD, Dipl. Ing. (AO) is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Contact Lens Research.

Craig JP, Willcox MDP, Argüeso P, Maissa C, Stahl U, Tomlinson A, Wang J, Yokoi N, Stapleton F. The TFOS International Workshop on Contact Lens Discomfort: Report of the Contact Lens Interactions With the Tear Film Subcommittee. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 2013 54:TFOS123-TFOS156.

The insertion of a contact lens leads to a separation of the pre-ocular tear film into a pre-and a post-lens tear film, with the potential to affect both the biophysical and biochemical properties of the tear film.

Changes to the biophysical properties of the tear film
Although the literature may not be conclusive for all parameters, there is evidence that the insertion of a contact lens leads to thinning of the lipid layer, reduced tear film stability as measured using tear film break-up time, decreased tear volume and turnover rate, and an increase in tear film thinning and evaporation.

Changes to the biochemical properties of the tear film
Information on changes to the biochemical properties seems more controversial and sparse.

The current literature suggests that the concentration of the major proteins (lysozyme and lactoferrin) and the total content are not affected by soft contact lens wear. Phosholipase A2 (sPLA2) and cholesterol esthers increase in symptomatic lens wearers with a negative effect on the lipid layer and its function, thereby increasing dryness symptoms.

Mucin secretion decreases during contact lens wear, and research suggests that symptomatic contact lens wearers have decreased levels of MUCAC2 – but no clear correlations have been established between reduced mucin content and ocular symptoms.

Although the association to ocular discomfort is unknown, there is general agreement that contact lens wear is associated with physical and biochemical changes to the epithelial glycocalyx and an increase in inflammatory markers.

Conclusions
The subcommittee concluded that there is still a significant gap in our understanding which tear film parameters and changes contribute to contact lens discomfort. A series of future studies has been proposed. It is likely impossible to pinpoint a single parameter responsible for contact lens discomfort. Instead evidence suggests that the biochemical and biophysical properties are closely related, with parameters being interlinked and one component affecting a multitude of other factors. This theory is supported by the fact that the strongest association to contact lens discomfort can be found with tear film stability, a parameter greatly influence by a variety of parameters, including the lipid layer, tear volume and evaporation.

For further details, please refer to The TFOS International Workshop on Contact Lens Discomfort: Report of the Contact Lens Interactions with the Tear Film Subcommittee.

Issues

  • Multifocal Contact Lenses
  • Artificial Tears: An Update
  • Myopia: New Evidence and Best Practices
  • Neuropathic Pain
  • Specialty Rigid Lenses
  • Contact lens compliance
  • Pandemic update
  • Digital Devices and Dry Eye: A Growing Issue
  • The long and short of axial length
  • Using BCLA CLEAR with your patients
  • Helping your patients through allergy season
  • Getting the measure of meibomian glands
  • 2020: An extraordinary year
  • Scleral lens update
  • A dose of myopia
  • New news since TFOS DEWS II
  • COVID-19 Special Edition
  • Material considerations
  • Putting dry eye theory into practice
  • Getting started with Ortho-K
  • Infiltrates – an update
  • Staining
  • Myopia matters: Summarising the IMI reports
  • Lids and contact lenses
  • Myths
  • Revisiting patient compliance
  • Contact Lenses & Kids
  • Interprofessional Collaboration
  • Digital eye strain
  • New Dry Eye Technology
  • Update on Presbyopia
  • Taking stock of dry eye disease: DEWS II
  • Scleral Lenses
  • Pain and Sensation
  • Lab measurements in clinical practice
  • Control of pediatric myopia
  • Nutrition
  • Rethinking contact lens deposits
  • Extended wear
  • Daily Disposables
  • Eyelash Mites (Demodex)
  • Outsmarting bacteria with new technology
  • Youth and contact lenses
  • Sports Vision
  • Ocular effects of UV radiation from the sun
  • Eyelid Conditions
  • Makeup: Impact on ocular health
  • Myopia Control – Update 2014
  • The Growing Prevalence of Myopia
  • Cosmetic contact lenses
  • Contact lens discomfort – The essentials
  • Technology and contact lens research
  • It's A Question of Comfort
  • Contact lens materials
  • Let's talk about SICS
  • Conjunctival Controversies
  • Kids & Contact Lenses
  • One-day silicone hydrogel lenses
  • Solutions
  • Spotlight on Scleral lenses
  • Drug delivery via contact lenses
  • Ocular allergies
  • Reducing lens case contamination
  • Dry eye and meibomium gland dysfunction
  • Myopia Control
  • Presbyopia
  • Compliance and non-compliance
  • Lens care
  • Celebrating 50 years of contact lenses

Looking for another article?

Alcon coopervision Johnson&Johnson Vision Care

Newsletter Sign-Up

Sign-up for and start receiving our newsletter.

Site Map

  • Home
  • Browse Past Issues
    • Editorial
    • Feature Article
    • Clinical Insight
    • Conference Highlights
  • Resource Library
  • Back to Basics
  • Useful Links
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
© 2023 Contact Lens Update