TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Contact Lens Removal A1 - Heinrich, Scott A. A1 - Rumoro, Dino P. A2 - Reichman, Eric F. PY - 2018 T2 - Reichman's Emergency Medicine Procedures, 3e AB - The Emergency Physician must be familiar with the proper technique of removing soft and hard contact lenses from patients who are unable to do so on their own. Patients with altered mental status are at risk of corneal damage if contact lenses remain in place. Healthy individuals who wear contact lenses overnight experience a 4- to 15-fold increase in the risk of corneal injury compared with those who remove their contact lenses daily.1 The explanation for this increased risk of injury is based on the development of corneal hypoxia and an immune response to antigens present on the lens surface, both of which lead to an inflammatory response and susceptibility to infectious organisms.1 This results in an increased incidence of ulcerative keratitis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, and corneal neovascularization.2,3 SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/19 UR - accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1159808170 ER -