RT Book, Section A1 Reichman, Eric F. SR Print(0) ID 57716696 T1 Chapter 154. Contact Lens Removal T2 Emergency Medicine Procedures, 2e YR 2013 FD 2013 PB The McGraw-Hill Companies PP New York, NY SN 978-0-07-161352-1 LK accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=57716696 RD 2024/10/04 AB The Emergency Physician must be familiar with the proper technique of removing both soft and hard contact lenses from patients who are unable to do so on their own for various reasons. Patients with altered mental status are at particular risk of corneal damage if contact lenses are allowed to remain in place. Healthy individuals who wear contact lenses overnight experience a 4- to 15-fold increase in the risk of corneal injury over 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