Comfort and vision scores at insertion and removal during 1 month of wear of Paragon CRT for corneal reshaping.

PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to evaluate the pattern of initial adaptation of neophytes to corneal refractive therapy (CRT) for overnight corneal reshaping in terms of comfort and subjective visual performance at lens insertion at night and lens removal in the morning. METHODS: Twenty-two young healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. All of them had been trialed to assess adaptation to conventional alignment-fit rigid gas permeable lenses and were only enrolled in this study after a 2-week wash-out period. Visual analog scales for subjective comfort and vision were recorded on a form given to the patient on days 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 14, 21, and 28. Additionally, the patient attended the clinic on days 1, 7, 15, and 30 after fitting, for follow-up. RESULTS: Successful adaptation was obtained in 21 of the 22 initially enrolled individuals. The average overnight wearing time remained constant during the study at 8 hrs per day. Overall comfort rates increased significantly up to values of 8.02 and 9.12 out of 10 at insertion and removal, respectively (P<0.001). Subjective vision scores also increased significantly at the end of the 1-month study period (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Adaptation to CRT is rapid in terms of subjective comfort and vision. Comfort significantly increases by day 5, whereas subjective vision in the morning reaches its maximum by days 15 to 21 and at the end of the day by days 10 to 15. These results are of interest to clinicians to provide evidence-based information to their patients about the expected time to adapt to CRT in terms of self-reported comfort and vision.