Dilated fixed pupils from accidental overuse of Opcon A

[Jmech27]

Hello MedHelp,  
Yesterday I accidentally mistook my bottle of Opcon A for my rewetting drops and put about 15-20 drops of Opcon A in my eyes with my contacts still in.  My boyfriend later realized that my pupils were extremely dilated and fixed.  We were continually trying to stimulate the pupils with direct light but there was no change.  After about 5 hours my eyes went back to normal.  I have never experienced fixed pupils before and it was quite scary, as I know this can often by a symptom of something being wrong neurologically.  I was  just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if it was indeed the drops that caused the fixed dilation.
Thanks,

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

You are welcome and Happy New Year.
JCH MD

[Jmech27]

Ok, thank you so much.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I have had this happen to patients before. Because you wear contacts the surface of your cornea is not perfectly smooth and drops are absorbed faster and more thoroughly than non-contact lens wearers.  

Opcon A will usually not dilate a normal eye but that many drops on a contact cornea will do the trick in some people with fair complexions and light colored iris (gray, green, blue).

As no other symptoms occur and you don't do it again its happened before to my contact lens patients including with Visine, Murine and Albalon-A

JCH MD