This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Birmingham, England — A doctor recently found 27 contact lenses “lost” in a 67-year-old woman’s eye while preparing her for cataract surgery, according to a write-up in the British Medical Journal.

According to the report, the woman was unaware of the lenses and had not previously complained of eye pain.

Doctors found a “hard mass” of 17 contact lenses that were “bound together by mucus,” according to the report. Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee ophthalmologist, told Optometry Today an additional 10 lenses were found during a follow-up examination.

“None of us have ever seen this before,” Morjaria told Optometry Today. “We were really surprised that the patient didn’t notice it because it would cause quite a lot of irritation while it was sitting there.”

Doctors successfully removed all 27 lenses.

The write-up in the medical journal cited the woman’s “deep set eyes” as a possible explanation for why she did not experience irritation caused by the lenses.