Risks and difficulties of the treatment of aphakia in infancy.

In a clinic where 250 children have been fitted with contact lenses between 1976 and 1982, one hundred and five were bilateral infantile aphakic patients. A review of the data sheets of 43 bilateral infantile aphakic patients in this group implies that the corneal complications of treatment are substantial but surmountable and that the risks and difficulties of contact lens treatment are probably justifiable if the recent reports of improved visual function in these patients are substantiated.