[Significance of the study of the pachymetric index in the evaluation of the process of eye adaptation to contact lenses].

The authors have examined the thickness of the cornea in 270 patients with weak and moderate myopia during adaptation of the eye to soft or rigid contact lenses. They have revealed a linear correlation between the period of wearing the lens and the degree of the pachometric index change during adaptation of the eye to contact lenses. The maximum permissible period for daily wearing of contact lenses have been determined, not involving essential shifts in water-salt metabolism of the cornea. Optimal schedules for managing the adaptation process with rigid and soft contact lenses have been developed, based on the regularities of the corneal thickness changes related to the length of the lens wearing.