Sterile field contamination from powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) versus contamination from surgical masks

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Infect Control
• Personal Author:
  Howard, Rex A. ; Lathrop, George W. ; Powell, Nathaniel
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Currently, powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) are not recommended for usage in close proximity to sterile fields owing to concerns that exhaled, unfiltered air potentially may cause contamination; however, this has not been confirmed by experimental study.
  
  Methods:
  
  After establishing background levels of airborne contamination, our team placed settling plates in a sterile field and collected contamination from participants who were performing particulate-generating actions. Participants performed the actions while wearing various forms of respiratory protection, including: (1) a full facepiece PAPR, (2) a full facepiece PAPR with a shoulder-length hood, (3) a surgical mask, and (4) no facial covering (as a positive control to determine contamination-reduction effectiveness). Specimens were collected at the end of a 10-minute sampling time frame. After incubation at 36.58C for 72 hours, we tabulated colony forming units as a marker of contamination.
  
  Results:
  
  Surgical masks and the 2 PAPR configurations all drastically reduced aerosolized droplet contamination. Surgical masks reduced contamination by 98.48%, and both PAPRs reduced contamination by 100% (compared with the usage of no facial covering). There was no statistical difference between their effectiveness (surgical mask vs both PAPRs, P value = .588 and no hood PAPR vs hood PAPR, P value >.999).
  
  Discussion/Conclusions:
  
  Based on these findings, the tested PAPR configurations are effective at reducing aerosolized droplet contamination into a sterile field, and further testing is warranted to assess other PAPR configurations as well as PAPR suitability in an operating room.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Air Microbiology Humans Infection Control Masks Occupational Exposure Operating Rooms Respiratory Protective Devices
• Keywords:
  Aerosol Nosocomial PPE Surgery
• Source:
  Am J Infect Control. 48(2):153-156
• Pubmed ID:
  31519477
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10906747
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  48
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1e3ca3753ab269e5755cc2a373f49374c676f1d60d33fd6266fcfde0b68c5eb3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/150389/cdc_150389_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 268.62 KB ]