Lost and found? Doctors remove 27 contact lenses from a woman's eye
Doctors were amazed at the discovery ahead of the patient's cataract surgery
(Web Desk) - A routine cataract surgery turned into a bewildering spectacle for doctors in England after they found 27 contact lenses stuck in a woman’s eye.
According to a report by The Guardian, the lenses were discovered when the 67-year-old woman went to get routine cataract surgery from a hospital in the West Midlands (English county).
During the surgical procedure a “a bluish foreign body” was discovered. Upon further examination it was revealed to be a clump of seventeen contact lenses which had gotten stuck together due to mucus. Upon further examination of the eye, ten more such lenses emerged.
A report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) took note of the discovery and experts in the journal wrote that the patient had worn monthly disposable lenses for 35 years. This along with her having poor vision in the right eye and deep set eyes, are reasons said to have enabled her to have “the unusually large number of retained foreign bodies.”
Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee in ophthalmology who found the first seventeen lenses, told Optometry Today that “none of us have ever seen this before,” adding that it was surprising that the patient did not notice the lenses as they would normally cause a lot of irritation while they were sitting in the eye. He also said that when the patient finally discovered the truth about her lenses she was “shocked” as she had thought that her eye pain was due to dryness and old age.
Contact lenses are widely used for improving eyesight and are seen as a functional alternative to glasses for people who have vision-related problems such as astigmatism.
