Soft Contact Lenses: A Look into the Future

Abstract

In the year 1960, WICHTERLE and LIM published a brief review in Nature concerning their research with hydrogel materials for use as prosthetic devices (1). They stated that the demands for such a material were: 1) a structure permitting the desired water content; 2) inertness to normal biological processes; and 3) permeability for metabolites. Materials meeting these demands had to have high molecular weights; they had to contain hydrophilic groups; and it was necessary that they have enough cross-linkage to prevent absorption. Materials meeting these requirements were copolymers of glycomonomethacrylate with several tenths percent of glycodimethacrylate. WICHTERLE and LIM mentioned almost incidentally (in the last sentence of their report) that promising results had been obtained with these materials in the manufacture of contact lenses.