Extended-wear RGP contact lenses: a viable alternative to refractive surgery.

The rigid gas-permeable (RGP) extended-wear lens offers a unique alternative to the hydrogel extended-wear lens as well as to refractive surgery. In suitable patients it can provide almost maintenance-free visual correction for a wide variety of refractive errors. With prudent patient selection, use of high-permeability RGP materials, sound lens design and fitting principles, and conservative follow-up procedures, RGP extended-wear lenses can have success rates exceeding those of either hydrogel extended-wear lenses or refractive surgery, with fewer complications. The complications that do occur are often predictable after a short period of daily wear, and the remainder can often be managed with small changes to lens design.