Contact lens care solutions and ocular surface

Abstract

Safe wear of non-daily disposable contact lenses require care systems to ensure disinfection and cleaning to allow the lens to be reused after a period of non lens wear (typically overnight). To do so, modern care systems, also known as multipurpose solutions (MPS) or multipurpose disinfecting solutions (MPDS) try to mimic the environment of the ocular surface regarding pH, osmolality, surface tension or viscosity while introducing other singular properties as a wide-spectrum antimicrobial activity and high cleaning performance. This delicate equilibrium or properties is challenging and sometimes results in adverse events that have drawn the attention of the CL industry and scientifi c community to these systems with an increased intensity during the past decade. Even with disposable lenses, safety is still a concern and presently we are in front of a new paradigm of solutions development, which must provide reinforced disinfecting capabilities and at the same time improve the compatibility with the ocular surface. Indeed, disinfection effi cacy against different new strains of microorganisms and compatibility with the ocular surface have been two aspects widely covered in the recent scientifi c literature, topics that will also be addressed in this chapter.