Short-term visual outcome with sclerocorneal contact lens on irregular cornea

PURPOSE: The purpose is to study the change in visual acuity obtained with sclerocorneal contact lens (SCL) in patients with irregular corneal astigmatism. METHODS: A prospective pre–post observational study was designed to include consecutive consenting patients with irregular corneal astigmatism and best-corrected visual acuity worse than 6/12 and fitted with SCL. Visual acuity was assessed using Snellen charts before fitting SCL and 1 week after the fit and converted to the equivalent logMAR units for analysis. RESULTS: We included 51 eyes of 41 patients with a mean age of 26.31 ± 8.86 of which 32 (78%) were men. Keratoconus was the most common indication (n = 42 eyes, 82.35%), followed by corneal scar (n = 3, 4%), post keratoplasty (n = 2, 4%), high myopia (n = 2, 4%), pellucid marginal degeneration (n = 1, 2%), and aphakia (n = 1, 2%). The mean overall uncorrected visual acuity improved significantly (P < 0.001) with SCL from 1.18 ± 0.34 logMAR (6/120 Snellen's equivalent) to 0.27 ± 0.15 (6/9 Snellen's equivalent) at 1-week post-SCL fitting. The mean overall best spectacle-corrected visual acuity improved from 0.89 ± 0.45 logMAR (6/36 Snellen's equivalent) to 0.26 ± 0.15 (6/9 Snellen's equivalent) at 1-week post-SCL fitting. CONCLUSION: Sclerocorneal contact lens improves visual acuity significantly in patients with irregular corneal astigmatism and reduces the need for corneal transplantation.