Doctors remove 27 contact lenses from woman’s eye before cataract surgery

A routine cataract surgery was abruptly halted when doctors found 17 contact lenses in a British woman's eye, according to news reports. After finding the first clump, which they described as a "blueish mass," they found 10 more.

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The 67-year-old woman from the United Kingdom had not complained of any irritation, just the normal discomfort of dry eye she thought was from old age, Optometry Today reported.

"She was quite shocked," ophthalmologist Rupal Morjaria told Optometry Today.

“It was such a large mass. All the 17 contact lenses were stuck together. We were really surprised that the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there,” Morjaria added.

Morjaria said the woman, who had been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for approximately 35 years, according to NPR, felt a lot more comfortable during her two-week follow up after having the 27 contacts removed.

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The doctors said they wanted to publicize her case as a warning to others who wear contacts. Tips and advice are available at the Association of Optometrists.

Read more at Optometry Today.

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