1. Conservation of personal protective equipment for head and neck cancer surgery during COVID-19 pandemic.
- Author
-
Chow VLY, Chan JYW, Ho VWY, Lee GCC, Wong MMK, Wong STS, and Gao W
- Subjects
- COVID-19, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. standards, Cohort Studies, Communicable Disease Control methods, Coronavirus Infections prevention & control, Equipment Safety, Female, Humans, Male, Operating Rooms standards, Pandemics prevention & control, Personal Protective Equipment standards, Pneumonia, Viral prevention & control, Practice Guidelines as Topic, Retrospective Studies, United States, Coronavirus Infections epidemiology, Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional prevention & control, Monitoring, Intraoperative methods, Occupational Health, Pandemics statistics & numerical data, Personal Protective Equipment virology, Pneumonia, Viral epidemiology
- Abstract
Background: COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE). This study aims to stratify face shield needs when performing head and neck cancer surgery., Methods: Fifteen patients underwent surgery between March 1, 2020 and April 9, 2020. Operative diagnosis and procedure; droplet count and distribution on face shields were documented., Results: Forty-five surgical procedures were performed for neck nodal metastatic carcinoma of unknown origin (n = 3); carcinoma of tonsil (n = 2), tongue (n = 2), nasopharynx (n = 3), maxilla (n = 1), and laryngopharynx (n = 4). Droplet contamination was 57.8%, 59.5%, 8.0%, and 0% for operating, first and second assistant surgeons, and scrub nurse respectively. Droplet count was highest and most widespread during osteotomies. No droplet splash was noted for transoral robotic surgery., Conclusion: Face shield is not a mandatory adjunctive PPE for all head and neck surgical procedures and health care providers. Judicious use helps to conserve resources during such difficult times., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF