Objective     To observe the pain and corneal recovery in the patients wearing contact lens for corneal bandage after giant pterygium excision. Methods     A total of 67 patients (67 eyes) with giant pterygium treated in our center from September 2013 to September 2015 were enrolled in this study. All the patients received pterygium excision and conjunctival autografting

and then randomly divided into the experimental group (soft contact lens group

n=35) and control group (n=32) after signing an informed consent and being approved by the Hainan Eye Hospital Ethics Committee. The experimental group was wearing contact lens immediately at the end of surgery

but the control group was not. Visual analog scale (VAS) was carried out on the day of operation

and in 1 and 2 d

and 1 week postoperatively

and slit lamp corneal microscopy was performed to observe corneal recovery. Results     The VAS scores were 5.17±1.81

2.54±1.38

1.46±1.24 and 0.14±0.35 at day 1 and 2

and 1 week postoperatively respectively in the experimental group

and were 9.12±1.34

5.28±1.30

2.97±1.80 and 0.18±0.39 respectively in the control group. Except the score at 1 week

the scores were significant lower in the experimental group than the control (P0.05). The mean corneal re-epithelization time was 52.80±9.74 h in the experimental group

which was significant shorter than that in control group(69.00±19.03 h

P0.05). Conclusion     Contact lens for corneal bandage will reduce post-operative pain and enhance corneal re-epithelization in the patients after giant pterygium excision.