Ophthalmologist removes 23 contact lenses from patient’s eye

A California ophthalmologist removed 23 contact lenses from a patient's eye. (Adobe Stock illustration)

A California ophthalmologist posted a video of a procedure she performed to remove 23 contact lenses from a woman’s eye, and the video has gone viral, with more than 1 million views.

Katarina Kurteeva, MD

Katarina Kurteeva, MD, a cataract and refractive surgery specialist at California Eye Associates in Newport Beach, California, posted a clip on Instagram showing her coaxing the lenses from beneath a female patient’s eyelid, according a report by Sky News.

In the Instagram post cited by the website, Kurteeva noted that the woman had used a new set of contact lenses each day for 23 days without removing the lenses she had been wearing. The video shows Kurteeva carefully sliding the lenses down from the top portion of the woman's eye.

In the video, the woman expresses her own disbelief regarding the numer of lenses as the ophthalmologist continues to carefully slide the lenses downward.

In another post on the social media platform, Kurteeva said she was pleased to have a chance to “educate the public about contact lens hygiene wear.”

After separating all of the lenses, Kurteeva tallied 23 lenses that had been removed from the woman’s eye.

The lenses were stuck together in a mass, and Kurteeva said she’d never seen anything like it in 20 years of surgery, according to comments to Insider.