The 4 million Italians who wear contact lenses, over half under 30, in the summer must pay attention to the hygiene of the lenses and always remove them for bathing in the sea or in the pool, but also in the shower.
The lenses, especially if they are soft, are an ideal ground for the proliferation of germs and in the water there can be Acanthamoeba, a pathogen responsible for severe keratitis.
The alarm was raised by experts at the XX Congress of the International Society of Cornea, Stem Cells and Ocular Science (Siccso).
In Italy it is estimated that Acanthamoeba is responsible for over 400 keratitis per year, continuously increasing due to the greater aggressiveness of the pathogen and the increasingly widespread use of contact lenses.
Unfortunately, 12 to 50% of cases do not respond to medical therapies and involve the need for a cornea transplant, which fails in over half of the cases, especially due to the delay in the operation.
Hope comes from the anterior lamellar cornea transplant, or DALK, in which the full thickness cornea is not implanted: the results of this technique, obtained in our country, guarantee success in 90% of patients, if the surgery is performed early in cases with a more severe degree of infection.
"In Italy it is estimated that more than one case per day of these keratitis occurs - underlines Vincenzo Sarnicola, president of Siccso - Unfortunately, medical therapies are not always able to eradicate the infection that does not respond to antiamebics, which are also difficult to find in Italian pharmacies. The microorganism thus has time to penetrate the cornea and damage it to the point of requiring a transplant in 12-50% of cases. The classic cornea transplant fails in more than half of the cases and in 40% of patients, glaucoma develops. rejections are frequent and in some cases it is even necessary to enuclear the eye. Better results are possible with an anterior lamellar cornea transplant, in which not all the cornea is replaced but only the middle layer. But the best therapy is prevention. ".Among the suggestions, prefer disposable lenses that reduce the risk of Acanthamoeba infection, clean the containers before storage and replace them regularly.