ABSTRACT To determine if there are any corneal endothelial cell size and shape changes in subjects wearing rigid gas‐permeable contact lenses for cosmetic extended wear, six unadapted lens wearers were fitted using four different lens materials. Each subject wore one lens extended‐wear and the other daily‐wear for 3 months. Before lens wear and after 3 months, noncontact endothelial photographs were taken. Cell tracings were analyzed by a digitizing computer. This study showed significant endothelial polymegathism, an increase in maximum cell area to minimum cell area, and a significant decrease in percent frequency of hexagonal cells in the extended‐wear eyes. There existed in these subjects a significant correlation between changes in cell size (polymegathism) and cell shape (pleomorphism).
Orsborn et al. (Mon,) studied this question.