ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION A 1995 report from the National Eye Industry indicated that CLRDE is a major sub-classifi cation of dry eye disease, and various visual activities, including computer terminal work or wearing CLs in low humidity
1Centro di Ricerche in Contattologia, Università del Salento, Via per Arnesano, Lecce, 73100 Italy; E-mail montani.gc@libero.it 2NNL Institute Nanoscience-CNR, Via per Arnesano, Lecce, 73100 Italy. 3Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università del Salento, Via per Arnesano, Lecce, 73100 Italy. *Corresponding author
environmental conditions, can intensify this condition (Lemp 1995). In various studies it has been noted that up to 75% of contact lens (CL) wearers present symptoms of dryness (Sindt 2007, Begley et al. 2001, Fonn et al. 1999, Pritchard and Fonn 1995, Nichols and Sinnott 2006). A non CL wearer who has moderately dry eyes would probably not have symptoms until he begins to wear CL. The pathogenesis of CLRDE is complex and multifactorial (Sindt 2007, Asbell and Ucakhan 2006) and can be summarized in Fig. 1.
