The clinical relevance of hydrogel lens water content

A knowledge of hydrogel lens dehydration is essential for practitioners in the understanding of lens behaviour on the eye. In this paper, we review ongoing studies which have been conducted at the Corneal Biophysics Laboratory documenting the stability of hydration of hydrogel contact lenses during normal wear and in response to experimentally induced environmental conditions. Consideration is given to techniques of measurement of water content, definitions of dehydration, patterns of dehydration during open and closed eye wear, and surface dehydration. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed