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Saline solution alert

cooby Apr 11 2006 12:53 PM

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/14314998.htm Contact lens solution tied to eye fungus WASHINGTON (AP) - Bausch & Lomb voluntarily suspended shipment of a contact lens solution after federal health officials linked it Monday to a fungal eye infection that can cause temporary blindness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating 109 reports of Fusarium keratitis infection in patients in 17 states since June 2005. Federal and state health officials have interviewed 30 of those patients. Of the 28 who wore soft contact lens, 26 reported using Bausch & Lomb's ReNu brand contact lens solution or a generic kind of solution also made by the Rochester, N.Y., company. Bausch & Lomb said it would temporarily suspend shipments of ReNu with MoistureLoc made at its Greenville, S.C., plant. Dr. Daniel Schultz, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said it was too early to determine if Bausch & Lomb's solution was the cause of the infections.

Edgy DC Apr 11 2006 01:10 PM

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one to wake up with mushrooms growing out of my eye sockets.

Willets Point Apr 11 2006 01:12 PM

AIGH! AIGH! AIGH! AIGH! Two words that should never be together "eye" and "fungus". AIGH! AIGH! AIGH! AIGH! I couldn't read the rest.

cooby Apr 11 2006 01:15 PM

My snarling coworker kinda blew me off when I told her about it. Oh well for her.

OlerudOwned Apr 11 2006 01:20 PM

She'll learn the hard way http://webs.wichita.edu/mschneegurt/biol103/lecture21/aspergillus_eye.jpg (Best you don't click that unless you can stomach eye fungus)

Rockin' Doc Apr 11 2006 01:30 PM

Fungal infections of the eye are nasty. Best to avoid them at all possible costs. What is upsetting to my partners and I is that no one from Bausch & Lomb has contacted us about this potential problem. We had to learn about it threw news reports, like everyone else. We are pretty irritated with our B&L sales rep to say the least. There appears to have been a contamination problem at one of the plants where the saline is produced. Luckily, we have not had any complications, but we pulled all our supply out of the office before starting with patients this morning.

seawolf17 Apr 11 2006 01:30 PM

OlerudOwned wrote: She'll learn the hard way http://webs.wichita.edu/mschneegurt/biol103/lecture21/aspergillus_eye.jpg (Best you don't click that unless you can stomach eye fungus) And like a moron, I read OO's disclaimer and clicked anyway.

cooby Apr 11 2006 01:34 PM

Rockin' Doc, I guess it would do no good to ask you if you think the regular ReNu would be okay?

cooby Apr 11 2006 04:27 PM

Yay! She came over and asked me about it again, and I was happy to oblige (I didn't show her that picture though)

Willets Point Apr 11 2006 04:53 PM

I'm very sensitive about things that have to do with the eyes (well, I have sensitive eyes) so I'm not going to look.

Rockin' Doc Apr 11 2006 10:30 PM

Our office received a call from the Bausch and Lomb sales representative around 3:30 this afternoon. He said there was no reason to remove the product from the office. He said it was safe to use, as long as we used great caution. I received a follow up e-mail here at home from Bausch and Lomb at 4:53 PM outlining th My partner told him it was too late, all of the Renu we had on hand was already packed away in an upstairs storage closet. Officially, there have been 108 cases of suspected Fusarium fungal keratitis in the United States since June 2005. Of those cases, 30 cases have been confirmed with 28 of the 30 cases involving contact lens wearers that have at some point in time used Renu with MoistureLoc. Considering the millions of people waring contact lenses and using the Renu solution, the incidence is extremely low. Still, it is much higher than the expected incidence of fungal keraitis and the there exist a disproportionate number of cases involving the Renu with MoistureLoc It is B&L's assertion that the infections are the result of poor patient hygiene (not washing hands prior to handling lenses) and poor patient compliance (not properly sealing saline once it is initially opened, not replacing saline with fresh solution after each disinfection cycle, and improper cleaning of lenses by patients) that are responsible for the fungal infections. It has been my experience that many patients do not care for their lenses as instructed by their doctors. Many of the infections and allergies that I have to treat on an almost daily basis are the result of indifferent patient care. So there may be some merit to their assertion. However, the potential risks are too great for our office to recommend the further use of the Renu with MoistureLoc to our patients until this matter is adequately investigated and resolved. My best advice to anyone that is wearing contact lenses is to follow the wearing schedule and care regimen as prescribed by their eye care professional. Don't cut corners to save a few pennies, it can potentially cost you far more in the end.

cooby Apr 11 2006 10:36 PM

I hope they're right; it's a scary thought... So they are not recalling it?

Rockin' Doc Apr 11 2006 10:40 PM

At this point there is no recall. Bausch and Lomb has implemented a voluntary cessation of all new shipments of the Renu with Moistureloc product.

ScarletKnight41 Apr 11 2006 10:56 PM

Shall I take it that Renu MultiPurpose No Rub is safe to use?

seawolf17 Apr 12 2006 06:29 AM

And of course, there's good old Target Generic Vaguely Similar To Opti-Free But Less Than Half The Price Contact Lens Solution.

Rockin' Doc Apr 12 2006 07:30 AM

Renu Multipurpose has not been mentioned in any of the cases at this poiint. Neither have any other contact lens solutions. Renu Multipurpose is the precursor to the the newer version of Renu with MoistureLoc. I do believe that how a person uses their solutions and cares for their lenses is just as important as the actual solutions that they use.

ScarletKnight41 Apr 12 2006 10:02 AM

Thanks RD. I'm good about washing my hands. I'll confess to stretching my 2-week contacts to 3 weeks. My optometrist wants me to take a day or two off of contacts each month - I have been doing that most months. So, generally, I think I'm in decent shape.