Fungal growth on soft contact lenses: a SEM-study.

Three soft contact lenses of the HEMA type, discarded because of irritation of the cornea, were processed for and subsequently examined with the SEM, A large portion of the convex surface was covered with globular deposits of fungal spores. Cross-fractures of lenses showed penetration of the fungi into the matrix material of the lenses. The concave surface of the contact lenses showed at two points imprints of the epithelial cells of the cornea in the deposited material on that side of the lenses.