What? Contact Lens Embedded In Woman's Eyelid For 28 Years?

Imagine going to the eye doctor because your upper eyelid is swollen and painful. The doctor tells you it's a cyst and operates. Inside the blister, the surgeon finds a contact lens: a rigid gas-permeable one. But you haven't worn that type of contact in 28 years!

That's what happened to a 42-year-old British woman, according to a report recently published in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

Starting as a pea-sized lump just below her left eyebrow, the cyst grew over a six-month period until it was visible on an MRI. In addition to swelling and later pain when touched, her left eyelid drooped.

When surgeons discovered the rigid contact, it was intact; it appeared to have been perfectly encapsulated by tissue. In the process of removing it, the contact was cracked and chipped.

The woman was bewildered. Then her mother remembered an accident when the woman was 14 years old: While playing badminton, she was hit in the left eye by a shuttlecock. She wore rigid contacts at the time, and the contact in the injured eye was never found. Because the injury resolved quickly with conservative care, the family assumed the contact had flown out of her eye and been lost.

Warning signs of a trapped contact lens typically include sharp or scratchy pain, light sensitivity and redness, but the woman had no symptoms once the shuttlecock injury healed.

Here's a suggestion from the doctors on this case: Tell your eye doctor about any past eye trauma, and if you have any swelling, ask the doc to check for wayward contacts.

Here we summed up some useful advice for contact lens wearers. Please read on.

People who are not fit to wear contact lens

Ophthalmologists from Shanghai Renai Hospital warn us that people are not fit to wear contact lens if they meet the following conditions.

1. With ocular diseases: inflammation of eyelids, conjunctiva or cornea, or those with trachoma, dacrocystitis, lacrimal duct obstruction or nystagmus

2. With systemic diseases: those who are extremely sensitive to any discomfort, especially eye discomfort or people having low resistance due to conditions like diabetes, pregnancy, arthritis or sinusitis

3. Environmental hazards: wind, sand, dust, acidic or alkaline substances

4. Contact lens can only be worn a year after eyesight correction operation

5. Contact lens is not suitable for primary and middle school students, as their optical axis is not fixed yet and changeable. So if they wear contact lens, it will lead to corneal anoxia, dysbolism or other side-effects

Contact lens wearing - dos and don’ts

1. Wear in a proper way

Wear and take off the contact lens properly, be careful and avoid damages from finger nails, clamp or anything that’s sharp-edged.

2. Do a check-up beforehand

If you have trachoma, corneitis, conjunctivitis, hypertension, diabetes, endocrine dyscrasia and etc, or if you are a child, please do not wear contact lens.

3. Go to hospital and run a check-up a week after wearing it or follow up every three to six months to maintain eye health if you wear it every day.

4. Be cautious of chemical damages.

For those who wear contact lens and makeup, always wear or take off contact lens first, thus to prevent chemical damages to the lens.

5. Soak the contact lens in solution, keep the case hygienic