The woman who felt she had “something in her eye” actually had 23 disposable contact lenses placed deep under her eyelids, her ophthalmologist said.
Dr. Katerina Kurteeva of the California Ophthalmological Association in Newport Beach, California, was shocked to find a group of contacts and “had to deliver” them in a case documented on her Instagram page last month.
“I myself was surprised. I thought it was kind of crazy. I have never seen this before, ”said Kurteeva TODAY. “All contacts are hidden under the lid of a stack of pancakes, so to speak.”
The 70-year-old patient, who asked not to be named, had been wearing contact lenses for 30 years, the doctor said. On September 12, she came to Kurteeva complaining of a sensation of a foreign body in her right eye and noticing mucus in that eye. She has been to the clinic before, but Kurteeva is seeing her for the first time since she was given an office last year. The woman did not have regular dates due to fear of contracting COVID-19.
Kurteeva first checked her eyes to rule out a corneal ulcer or conjunctivitis. She also looked for eyelashes, mascara, pet hair, or other common items that could cause a foreign body sensation, but saw nothing on her right cornea. She noticed mucous discharge.
The woman said that when she lifted her eyelid, she saw that something black was sitting there, but could not pull it out, so Kurdieva turned the lid upside down with her fingers to see. But again, the doctors found nothing.
It was then that an ophthalmologist used an eyelid speculum, a wire instrument that allowed a woman’s eyelids to be opened and pushed wide apart so that her hands were free for a closer examination. She was also injected with a macular anesthetic. When she looked carefully under her eyelids, she saw that the first few contacts had stuck together. She pulled them out with a cotton swab, but it was just a lump of the tip.
Kurteeva asked her assistant to take photos and videos of what happened while she tugged at the contacts with a cotton swab.
“It was like a deck of cards,” Kurteeva recalls. “It spread a little and formed a little chain on her lid. When I did, I told her, “I think I deleted 10 more.” “They just kept coming and going.”
After carefully separating them with jewelry pliers, the doctors found a total of 23 contacts in that eye. Kurteeva said she washed the patient’s eye, but fortunately the woman didn’t have an infection – just a slight irritation that was treated with anti-inflammatory drops – and everything was fine.
In fact, this is not the most extreme case. In 2017, British doctors found 27 contact lenses in the eyes of a 67-year-old woman who thought dry eyes and aging were causing her irritation, Optometry Today reports. She wore monthly contact lenses for 35 years. The case is documented in the BMJ.
“Two contacts in one eye is common, three or more is very rare,” Dr. Jeff Petty, an ophthalmologist in Salt Lake City, Utah, told the American Academy of Ophthalmology about a 2017 case.
Patient Kurteeva told her that she did not know how it happened, but doctors had several theories. She said that the woman probably thought she was removing the lenses by sliding them to the side, but they weren’t, they just kept hiding under the upper eyelid.
Bags under the eyelids, known as vaults, are a dead end: “There’s nothing that can get to the back of your eye without being sucked in and it won’t get into your brain,” notes Kurteeva.
In one elderly patient, the vault became very deep, she said, which is associated with age-related changes in the eyes and face, as well as the way the orbits narrow, which leads to sunken eyes. The contact lens was so deep and far away from the cornea (the most sensitive part of the eye) that the woman could not feel the swelling until she was very large.
She added that people who wear contact lenses for decades lose some sensitivity to the cornea, so that could be another reason she can’t feel the spots.
Kurteeva said the woman “loves to wear contact lenses” and wants to keep using them. She recently saw patients and reports that she feels well.
This case is a good reminder to wear contact lenses. Always wash your hands before contact with lenses, and if you wear everyday contact lenses, link eye care with daily dental care – remove contact lenses when brushing your teeth so you never forget, says Kurteeva.
A. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter specializing in health news and articles. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor for CNN.