角膜内皮細胞に高度の形態異常を認めたハードコンタクトレンズ長期装用の2症例

Two longterm hard contact lens wearers showed abnormal corneal endothelial cells

　約20年のハードコンタクトレンズ装用者2例（38歳男性と56歳女性）に認めた角膜内皮細胞形態の異常を報告した．平均細胞面積（μm²，mean±SD），変動係数（CV：SD／mean），六角形細胞頻度（％）は，第1例右眼で565±344μm²，0.59,33.5％，左眼で543±227μm²，0.51,33.3％を示し，第2例右眼で479±232μm²，0.49，33.3％，左眼で356±168μm²，0.47,28.5％であり，症例2左眼の平均細胞面積を除き，いずれも異常値と考えられた．ハードコンタクトレンズ長期装用により角膜内皮損傷が生じる可能性が考えられるので，コンタクトレンズ装用については角膜内皮形態の観察が必要と考えられた．

We studied the corneal endothelium by specular microscopy in two cases who had been using hard contact lenses for the past 20 years. Both cases, a 38-year-old male and 56-year-old female, were free of clinical symptoms. When evaluated for average cellsize, variation and frequency of hexagonal cells, the four eyes were judged as significantly pathological except for average cell size in one eye in the second case. The finding seemed to suggest the posibility of insidious damage to the corneal endothelium in longterm wearers of hard contact lens. We advocate examination by specular microscopy while prescrib-ing contact lenses.