There is evidence to suggest that pterygium appears to induce unfavorable conditions of increasing TO that could trigger alterations in tear crystallization and GCD. Being aware of TO changes seems essential to understand the complex relationship among pterygium, tear film functions, and ocular surface changes.

The introduction of the Primary Nursing Model in hospital wards allows the presence of a primary nurse for each patient and consequently improves the nurse-patient relationship, increasing perceived quality of care among patients.

Purpose Ocular manifestations and ocular transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in contact lens (CL) wearers may be fostered by non-compliance with care and maintenance instructions which, in turn, may be aggravated by inadequate patient-practitioner communication. The purpose of this research was to determine CL use, compliance and patient-practitioner communication during a 3-month long COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. Methods An online survey (developed using Google Forms) retrospectively evaluated CL compliance during the 3-month lockdown (responses captured between 15th July and 10th August, 2020), with particular emphasis on patient-practitioner communication, handwashing practices and CL case hygiene and replacement. Results A total of 247 responses were collected and analysed. Most participants used monthly replacement soft lenses (64.8%) and multipurpose solutions (75.7%), with 86.6% of them owning a storage case for their lenses. During lockdown, a significant percentage of participants ceased lens wear (28.4%) or reduced wearing time (49.2%). Regarding patient-practitioner communication, 54.3% of respondents received specific instructions, mostly about handwashing (93.3%) and storage case hygiene (48.5%). The most frequent non-compliant practices were inadequate handwashing (36.4%), and overextending monthly or two-weekly replacement lenses (35.2%). Many respondents never cleaned (23.0%) nor replaced (16.3%) their storage case, and 27.8% of them reported not having been informed about case hygiene by their practitioners. Conclusion Contact lens compliance, particularly in terms of handwashing and storage case hygiene, was poor during a prolonged COVID-19 lockdown, thus stressing the need to foster patient-practitioner communication strategies to curtail the possibility of ocular transmission and the risk of virus tropism.

SIGNIFICANCECompliance with hygiene and replacement of contact lens (CL) storage cases is key to avoid CL contamination and anterior ocular surface complications. However, compliance levels with these accessories remain low, even in patients with awareness of the risk associated with noncompliance.PURPOSEThis study aimed to determine level of compliance with common practices regarding CL storage case hygiene and replacement, type of information provided by practitioners, and risk perception.METHODSAn ad hoc self-reported survey was used to collect demographic and CL wear details, compliance with storage case care, type of received information, and risk perception (in a 1-to-5 scale). Inferential statistics explored the relationship of demographic details and type of received information with compliance and risk perception.RESULTSNondaily disposable wearing participants returned 299 completed surveys, with a median age of 24 years (76.9% females). Monthly replacement silicone hydrogel CLs and multipurpose solutions were predominant. Self-reported compliance with storage case care was poor, with 19.1% of respondents never cleaning their cases, 68.6% exposing them to tap water, and 26.4% failing to replace them within 6 months of acquisition. Two-thirds of respondents received specific information on case maintenance, mainly in oral form. Perceived risk associated with poor-compliance practices was high (median values of 4 and 5), and increased with educational level (P = .02, regarding handwashing; P = .03, regarding case hygiene), with years of CL wear experience (P < .001, regarding handwashing), in those patients provided with specific information on CL case care (P = .01, regarding case replacement).CONCLUSIONSCompliance with CL storage case hygiene and replacement was generally poor, although awareness of risk associated with noncompliance was high and influenced by factors related to demographic details, CL experience, and patient-practitioner communication. Strategies must be explored to increase risk awareness through education because this may lead to better compliance practices.