Questionnaire DAN - Visser Contactlenzen

As part of the Diving Safety Laboratory (DSL) project of the Divers Alert Network Europe (DAN Europe), a research project has been started to investigate the safety and comfort of diving while wearing hard scleral contact lenses. While currently, daily disposable soft contact lenses are the first-choice lens to wear while diving, there has been very little research on scleral lenses.

Gas-permeable scleral lenses are used increasingly worldwide. Other names for a scleral lens are a scleral contact lens or ocular surface prostheses. It is a large rigid contact lens that rests on the sclera (white of the eye) and bridges the cornea. Scleral lenses are designed to treat a variety of eye conditions, like keratoconus, irregular shape corneas or thin and fragile corneas.

Due to the theoretical risk represented by mask squeeze, it is commonly advised that people who have keratoconus or highly irregular shape anomalies should not dive. However, we know from experience that some divers (the exact number is not known) with these conditions do dive, using scleral lenses, seemingly without too many problems.

The use and safety of wearing this type of contact lens has been studied extensively. However, how these lenses perform while scuba diving has not been investigated. Wearing scleral contact lenses could be a safe and comfortable way for these people to dive and enjoy the underwater world. For this research, we ask all scleral lens wearers who dive with scleral lenses to answer a questionnaire on their experiences of diving with their lenses. The aim of this research questionnaire is to gather more data on the experience of diving with scleral contact lenses; we will then be able to make recommendations based on facts, not just theoretical considerations.

Your answers will be recorded anonymously; your registration data and/or DAN membership number are only used to ensure no duplicate questionnaires are recorded. We will need some personal data such as your age, sex and diving experience, but there will be no direct link to your personal identification data. By completing this questionnaire, you consent that your answers are used in the statistical analysis.

If you have any questions about this research, you can submit them by e-mail to the following address: pgermonpre@daneurope.org.

Consent*
- I consent that my answers are used for scientific analysis by DAN Europe Research within the scope of the research described above.
Please do not fill in this questionnaire more than once
You are
In what year were you born?
In what year did you start scuba diving?
How many dives have you made in total?
What certification level in diving do you have?
How many years have you been wearing scleral contact lenses?
For what eye condition do you wear the scleral contact lenses?
Please specify
What type of scleral lenses are you using?
How many months have you been using scleral lenses for diving?
How many dives have you made with scleral lenses?
How frequently do you dive with scleral lenses on average each year?
What is the average duration of your dives? (in minutes)
What is the average depth of your dives? (in meters)
Is your average dive within the "no-decompression limits" of your dive computer (no mandatory decompression stops)?
Are you diving mostly in
Are you diving in cold water/winter as well (water temperature <10 C)?
How long before the dive do you insert your scleral contact lenses?
Do the scleral lenses become cloudy, opaque or blurry DURING the dive?
Do you close your eyes when clearing the dive mask?
Have you ever lost a lens while diving (e.g. by clearing the mask)?
Are your scleral lenses cloudy or blurry AFTER the dive?
Are your eyes, after the dive:
Are your eyes, after the dive:
Are your scleral lenses fogged up after the dive?
When do you remove your scleral lenses after the dive?
When you make two dives per day, do you remove the lenses in between dives?
Removing the scleral lenses after the dive, compared to a non-diving day, is:
Do you clean the lenses after the dive?
Do you re-insert the same lenses after the dive, with saline and/or Cellumed?
Did you ever experience medical problems that could be attributed to the diving with the scleral contact lenses (infection, irritation)?
If yes, which problems and how long did these take to resolve (please describe briefly)?
Do you notice a difference in wearing the scleral lenses when diving in fresh versus salt water?
If the answer is yes or sometimes, please describe the difference you experience when diving in fresh vs salt water: