Pediatric Microbial Keratitis With Overnight Orthokeratology in Russia

Objectives: To estimate the incidence of microbial keratitis in children wearing overnight orthokeratology lenses in Moscow, Russia.

Methods: To estimate the number of children wearing overnight orthokeratology lenses in 2018, 1,368 patient records from 13 Doctors Lens clinics were selected at random and extrapolated to the entire patient base. To identify cases of microbial keratitis, all episodes of infiltrative keratitis from Morozovskaya City Children's Clinical Hospital in 2018 were recorded and adjudicated by three experienced ophthalmologists. Incidence was calculated as the number of cases divided by the estimated number of wearers.

Results: There were 23,049 overnight orthokeratology fits between 2010 and 2018. Among the 1,368 records surveyed, 1,078 (79%) were younger than 18 years at initial fitting. Based on a 7% or 10% annual discontinuation rate, the estimated number of children wearing lenses in 2018 was 10,307 or 9,422, respectively. During 2018, there were 139 cases of corneal infiltrative keratitis in children and 45 were adjudicated as microbial keratitis (32%). Of these, 20 cases were associated with contact lens wear (44%): 15 soft lens wearers (33%) and 5 overnight orthokeratology wearers (11%). Based on the 5 cases and assuming a 7% or 10% discontinuation rate, the annual incidence is 4.9 (95% confidence interval[CI]: 2.1-11.4) or 5.3 (95% CI: 2.3-12.4) per 10,000 patient years.

Conclusion: The incidence of microbial keratitis in children wearing overnight orthokeratology is lower than a previous United States study and similar to rates associated with use of daily wear soft contact lenses.