Improved Testing and Design of Intubation Boxes During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Study objective

Throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, many emergency departments have been using passive protective enclosures ("intubation boxes") during intubation. The effectiveness of these enclosures remains uncertain. We sought to quantify their ability to contain aerosols using industry standard test protocols.

Methods

We tested a commercially available passive protective enclosure representing the most common design and compared this with a modified enclosure that incorporated a vacuum system for active air filtration during simulated intubations and negative-pressure isolation. We evaluated the enclosures by using the same 3 tests air filtration experts use to certify class I biosafety cabinets: visual smoke pattern analysis using neutrally buoyant smoke

SUBMITTER: Turer DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7470714 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature