Low atmospheric pressure effects on wearing soft contact lenses.

The majority of all research in the field of contact lenses has taken place in a normal, ground-level environment. The purpose of this study was to determine if any changes occurred in wearing hydrophilic soft lenses under conditions of low atmospheric pressures. The effects on visual acuity, refraction, keratometry, and biomicroscopy were investigated with eight naval volunteers while wearing soft contact lenses at simulated altitudes up to 30,000 ft (9144 m) in an aviation hypobaric chamber. The results indicated that the low atmospheric pressure at high atitude in itself did not affect the fit of soft contact lenses.