Sodium Chloride 0.9% Saline Ampoules 20 × 5ml — Preservative-Free Single-Use Saline for Scleral & RGP Lenses (Fresenius Kabi)

✔ Stock on hand — ships NZ-wide from Rose Optometry, Hamilton.

Fresenius Kabi Sodium Chloride 0.9% — 20 × 5 mL single-use ampoules, $13.80. Plain sterile saline with nothing in it but sodium chloride and water: no preservative, no buffer, no additives. One snap-top ampoule is one application — enough to fill a scleral lens or rinse a pair of rigid or ortho-k lenses — and the rest goes in the bin. This is the saline we hand scleral lens wearers across the counter.

What it is

• Sodium Chloride Injection BP 0.9% (Fresenius Kabi, AUST R 197200): each 5 mL ampoule contains sodium chloride 45 mg in Water for Injections, with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide for pH adjustment only.
• Sterile and preservative-free. Isotonic — close to the salt concentration of your own tears.
• Single-use plastic ampoules, 20 per box. Snap the top, use, discard. Nothing is left open long enough to grow anything.
• Labelled by the manufacturer for use as a sterile irrigation medium among other clinical uses; we supply it for contact lens rinsing and scleral lens filling as advised by our optometrists.

Who it's for

• Scleral lens wearers — filling the bowl of the lens before insertion. The filling solution sits sealed against your cornea all day, so it must be sterile and preservative-free (non-preserved sodium chloride saline has long been the standard reservoir fluid), and a single-use ampoule is the cleanest way to guarantee that.
• Ortho-k and RGP wearers — a final rinse of cleaner residue before the lens goes on the eye.
• Keratoconus patients in scleral or rigid lenses, for the same reasons.
• Travel — 5 mL ampoules sit well under the cabin-liquids limit, and there is no opened bottle to use up within a set period.

How to use

1. Wash and dry your hands. Clean the lens as your optometrist prescribed — saline rinses, it does not clean or disinfect.
2. Twist or snap off the top of one ampoule. Don't touch the open tip.
3. Scleral lenses: fill the bowl of the lens to the brim so there is no air bubble, then insert. Rigid and ortho-k lenses: rinse the lens over a plugged sink and insert.
4. Discard the opened ampoule and anything left in it. Never save the remainder for later.

Never store lenses in saline overnight — that is not disinfection. Never rinse lenses or cases in tap water. Follow the care regime your own optometrist prescribed for your lenses.

Questions we get asked

Why does the box say "Injection"?
Because that is how Fresenius Kabi registers this saline: a sterile 0.9% sodium chloride in water for injections, sold in hospitals and pharmacies. Non-preserved sodium chloride saline is the traditional scleral lens filling fluid, and plain single-use ampoules like these are the practical way to get it in New Zealand, where the purpose-made buffered filling solutions sold overseas are not readily available. We are not suggesting you inject anything — this is for your lenses, on the advice of your optometrist. A few wearers do better with a buffered, tear-like filling solution; if plain saline leaves you gritty or foggy, tell us.

Isn't a 355 ml bottle of lens saline better value?
Per millilitre, yes. The catch is that a preservative-free bottle has to be thrown out within a set period after opening, and every time it is opened the tip can be contaminated. For filling a scleral lens we prefer a fresh ampoule each time; a large bottle is sensible for volume rinsing. Our article on which saline is safe for scleral and rigid lenses sets out the difference and names the salines that must never go in a scleral lens.

Can I use nasal saline, wound saline or piercing saline instead?
Only if the label shows nothing but sodium chloride and water, and no preservative. Many of those products are buffered or preserved, and a preserved saline sealed under a scleral lens for twelve hours is a recipe for a red, stinging eye. If in doubt, bring the bottle in.

Can I put it in my eye as a drop?
It won't harm you, but it isn't a lubricant and it washes straight out. For dry eyes you want a proper preservative-free lubricant such as TheraTears Dry Eye Hydration or TheraTears EXTRA, which can also go in over a lens.

Does it disinfect my lenses?
No. Saline rinses and fills. Disinfection is a separate solution and a separate step — RGP & Ortho-K lens care and Scleral & specialty lens care have the full routines.

My lens fogs up part-way through the day — will a different saline fix it?
Sometimes. Midday fogging affects somewhere between a quarter and a half of scleral lens wearers, and has several causes — debris in the reservoir, the fit of the lens, the lids and the tear film itself. Switching to a clean single-use, non-preserved saline is the first, cheapest thing to try; if it keeps happening, book in so we can look at the fit and the reservoir. Book a keratoconus / specialty lens appointment.

Why buy from Rose Optometry

• Independent, optometrist-owned New Zealand practice fitting scleral, RGP and ortho-k lenses in Hamilton since 1969.
• Free optometrist advice with every order: reply to your order email and a clinician answers.
• Free NZ shipping on orders over $100, sent from Hamilton.