Contamination of Acanthamoeba in Contact Lens Care System.

Lee, Sang Mee; Choi, Yul Je; Chung, Dong Il

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 1997;38(5):756-761.
Published online May 1, 1997.

Contamination of Acanthamoeba in Contact Lens Care System.

Sang Mee Lee, Yul Je Choi, Dong Il Chung

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Dongkang Hospital, Ulsan, Korea.
²Department of Parasitology, Kyungpook National University, School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea.

콘택트렌즈 보존액 및 보존용기에서의 Acanthamoeba에 의한 오염

이상미(Sang Mee Lee),최율제(Yul Je Choi),정동일(Dong Il Chung)

Abstract

Recently, the number of reports of Acanthamoeba keratitis has been increased apparently as a consequence of association with use of contact lenses, contaminated contact lens care system and high concern of ophthalmologist to Acanthamoeba keratitis. But, there were few epidemiologic studies of contamination of contact lens care system by Acanthamoeba and there was no report in Korea. We carried out a survey to demonstrate the contamination of contact lens care system by Acanthamoeba and bacteria and analysed the results according to the types of contact lenses and methods of disinfection. We examined the contact lens care system of 185 asymptomatic contact lens wearer for the contamination of Acanthamoeba and bacteria. The result showed a significant contamination of Acanthamoeba and bacteria. Twenty eight(15%) were contaminated with Acanthamoeba, eighteen(10%) were mixed with bacterial contamination and seventy four(40%) were contaminated with bacteria. There was no significant difference with sex and the result showed a lot of cocontamination with bacteria and amoeba and chemical disinfection showed a high Acanthamoeba contamination rate. Based on data from this and previous studies, the most of contact lens care system of contact lens wearer was contaminated with bacteria, amoeba and other microorganism. So, ophthalmologists should be concerned about Acanthamoeba contamination of contact lens care system.

Key Words: Acanthamoeba keratitis;Contact lens care system;Chemical disinfection