Patent ID: 8647699

Claim:
A process for coating a medical article comprises the steps of: (a) providing an uncoated medical article, wherein the article comprises a hydrophobic bulk material made of a silicone hydrogel containing carboxylic acid groups; (b) contacting the medical article with a C 2 -C 4 alcohol for a treating period of ≦5 minutes; (c) contacting the medical article treated in step (b) in a lens package containing a packaging solution comprising chitosan and a crosslinking agent selected from the group consisting of aliphatic C 2 -C 10 -dialdehydes, formaldehyde and genipin; and (d) autoclaving said package with the medical article and the packaging solution therein thereby forming a covalently attached coating resulting from the reaction of the chitosan with the carboxylic acid groups on the medical article surface in the presence of the crosslinking agent, wherein the resultant medical article has a hydrophilicity characterized by an average water contact angle of about 80 degrees or less.