Resource Library

The Effects of the Morgan Lens on Chemical Corneal Burns

Authors: Lee KH, Kim MS, Kim JH

Journal: Journal of the Korean Ophthalmologic Society (Oct. 1987)

Abstract: The Morgan Lens* was designed as a sterile disposable scleral contact lens which provides ocular lavage and medication to the conjunctiva and cornea. In this study, eleven chemical burn patients were treated over the past six years, five patients with Morgan Lenses and six patients with “classical syringe irrigation”, and the results were compared. The results of the Morgan Lens group showed shorter admission dates, better visual acuities, and less complications than those of the classical syringe irrigation group.

*Note: the Morgan Lens was originally called the Morgan Therapeutic Lens and this terminology was in use when this article was written.

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-Once I had an exposure while give a patient a medication through a saline lock.  The syringe backed out slightly and when I gave the med a little push it sprayed into my eyes.  It burned, so I immediately flushed my eyes.  A co-worker instilled a Morgan lens to each eye and ran sterile N.S. and I felt immediate relief.

-A local trauma surgeon and avid woodworker complained of irritation to his eye for several days.  The eye was obviously irritated.  After being examined by an emergency department doctor for a foreign body, and finding none, we irrigated the eye using the Morgan Lens.  The surgeon found the lens to be comfortable, and after irrigation the eye felt better.  Two days later his eye was better without redness or irritation.

-An employee of the hospital where I work had a car battery explode in his face.  An eye irrigation was set up and initiated with the Morgan Lens.  He felt much better and commented on the soothing feeling of the sterile saline irrigation.

Registered Nurse (California)

Why Use The Morgan Lens?

The Morgan Lens is used in 90% of hospital emergency departments in the USA and can be inserted in less than 20 seconds. There simply is no other "hands-free" method of eye irrigation. Nothing else frees medical personnel to treat other injuries or to transport the patient while irrigation is underway. Nothing is more effective at treating ocular chemical, thermal, and actinic burns or removing non-embedded foreign bodies, even when the patient's eyes are closed tightly. Its design makes it simple and straightforward to use so minimal training is required.