Management of irregular astigmatism with rigid gas permeable contact lenses.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure improvement in best corrected visual acuity with rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses compared to best corrected spectacle visual acuity for patients with irregular astigmatism.

Methods: We compared best corrected visual acuity obtained with spectacle correction to best corrected visual acuity obtained with rigid gas permeable contact lenses for forty-eight eyes of 29 patients with irregular astigmatism.

Results: Patients with 20/20 spectacle visual acuity achieved, on average, no improvement in visual acuity with RGP contact lenses. Patients with 20/25-20/30 spectacle visual acuity achieved a one line average improvement. Patients with 20/40 spectacle visual acuity achieved a two line average improvement. Patients with 20/50-20/200 spectacle visual acuity achieved a four line average improvement and patients with spectacle visual acuity of 20/400, a six line average improvement.

Conclusions: RGP contact lenses can provide a significant improvement in visual acuity compared to spectacle correction for patients with irregular astigmatism.