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Giant Papillary (Contact Lens-Induced) Conjunctivitis Disease

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Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology

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Synonyms

Contact lens-induced conjunctivitis

Definition

Giant papillary conjunctivitis (GPC) An inflammatory response of the superior tarsal conjunctiva to the prolonged presence of a foreign body on the ocular surface.

Etiology

The condition was first observed in contact lens wearers. Ocular prostheses, exposed suture ends, extruded scleral buckles, filtering blebs, corneal foreign bodies, limbal dermoids, and tissue adhesives have also been implicated (Ehlers and Donshik 2008). The condition is most commonly seen in contact lens wearers, particularly patients who wear soft contact lenses (Manzouri et al. 2006). It can occur with hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) or silicone polymer hydrogel contact lenses. However, it can also occur with rigid contact lenses of either polymethyl metacrylate (PMMA) or gas-permeable polymers (Ehlers and Donshik 2008).

The development of giant papillary conjunctivitis is attributed to a combination of mechanical irritation of the superior limbus and a...

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References

  • Arffa RC (1997) Noninfectious causes of conjunctival inflammation. In: Grayson’s diseases of the cornea, 4th edn. Elsevier, New York, pp 182–184

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  • Dunn SP, Heidemann DG (2011) Giant papillary conjunctivitis. In: Cornea fundamentals, diagnosis, and management, 3rd edn. Elsevier, New York, pp 583–589

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  • Ehlers WH, Donshik PC (2008) Giant papillary conjunctivitis. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol 8:445–449

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  • Manzouri B, Flynn T, Ono SJ (2006) Allergic eye disease: pathophysiology, clinical manifestations and treatment. In: Cornea and external eye disease. Springer, New York, p 217

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

    Sana Idrees

Authors
  1. Sana Idrees
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Correspondence to Sana Idrees .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Ophthal & Optometry,AKH, Medical University of Wien Dept of Ophthal & Optometry,AKH, Wien, Austria

    Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main Department of Ophthalmology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Thomas Kohnen

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Idrees, S. (2014). Giant Papillary (Contact Lens-Induced) Conjunctivitis Disease. In: Schmidt-Erfurth, U., Kohnen, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35951-4_556-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35951-4_556-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35951-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

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