Infections From Contact Lenses Puts Countless Kids in the Emergency Room

More than 70000 kids a year find themselves in the emergency room from medical device complications. The leading culprit is contact lenses.

In a new report released by the FDA and published in Pediatric, shows that infections due to improper cleaning or wearing the lenses too long are the leading problem. Emergency rooms also see many eye abrasions due to contact lens wearing in children and teens.

This report also has shown that contact lens usage may not be as simple as they once thought for children to understand. All of the emergency room visits could have been avoided if the lenses were cared for properly.

Also included in the report were other common medical device injuries to children and teens. These included reaction to injections and shunt and catheter infections. The report has been conducted as a way to help doctors understand what types of reactions children and teens have to these products and how they may avoid complications.

The study also revealed that the medical device malfunctions were almost evenly split between private and practitioner fault. While the contact lens problems were basically self inflicted problems, all the other medical device malfunctions were directly related to treatment and not usage.