It is really nice to be at meetings that are truly devoted to contact lenses. I had the fortune to recently visit two within one week: the international society for contact lens specialists (ISCLS) in Ashford (UK), and the European contact lens society of ophthalmologists (ECLSO) in Nice (France). Both great meetings with a fabulous program. (R)GP lenses were very well represented at both meetings. A question that came up frequently is: in the specialty lens field, it is often hard to quantify success. It is vision, comfort, wearing time that contributes to that (or all of the above)? In some of the lectures, the vision-related quality of life (VQoL) was measured and reported. Maybe this just sums it all up: if you want to compare different lens modalities for the challenging cornea - this is what it comes down to at the end of the day. And it has been reported for instance in keratoconus that the quality of life can been affected, especially since the condition involves young adults according to Kymes et al in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. Hope to see you at the next contact lens meeting - the Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS) is gearing up for its annual meeting in Las Vegas (US) in January. Can't wait to hear the latest on the different beautiful VQoL-improving lens modalities available.

To compare the rates of bacterial contamination in cylindrical and flat contact lens cases of orthokeratology lens users and to investigate their preference of lens case design based on ease of use and handling was the aim of a study by researchers from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Twenty-four children were enrolled, and each subject was given one cylindrical and one flat lens case, of which one side was sealed to prevent usage. Overall, 30% of both inner surfaces and screw tops of the cases yielded potentially pathogenic organisms, with significantly higher numbers present on both the inner surfaces and the screw tops of the flat cases. In conclusion, the authors state that the use of the cylindrical case design significantly reduced contamination in orthokeratology subjects. The method of cleaning the lens case was not found to have any significant effect on the bacterial binding. 

Greg DeNaeyer in Review of Cornea & Contact Lenses wrote a CE paper on 'Today's Scleral Lens' - an exceptional, practical and useful paper on the topic. The article features a full table of scleral lens availability including front toric scleral (as also reported by Greg DeNaeyer in I-site March 2012), back toric scleral, quadrant specific scleral and multifocal scleral lens design options (in the USA). It also introduces a new device for the application of scleral lenses - a stand that holds a lighted plunger - for elderly or disabled patients who have trouble applying the lenses to the eye. Furthermore, solution tips are given and wettability problem solving is provided.