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Endoscopic skull base and transoral surgery during COVID ‐19 pandemic: Minimizing droplet spread with negative‐pressure otolaryngology viral isolation drape
Author(s) -
David Abel P.,
Jiam Nicole T.,
Reither Joshua M.,
Gurrola Jose G.,
Aghi Manish K.,
ElSayed Ivan H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.26239
Subject(s) - medicine , suction , otorhinolaryngology , isolation (microbiology) , covid-19 , surgery , contamination , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , disease , meteorology , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , ecology
Background The coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic has raised concern of transmission of infectious organisms through aerosols formation in endonasal and transoral surgery. Methods Retrospective review. We introduce the negative‐pressure otolaryngology viral isolation drape (NOVID) system to reduce the risk of aerosol. NOVID consists of a plastic drape suspended above the patient's head and surgical field with a smoke evacuator suction placed inside the chamber. Results Four patients underwent endonasal (4) and endo‐oral surgery (1). Fluorescein was applied to the surgical field. Black light examination of fluorescein‐treated operative fields revealed minimal contamination distant to the surgical field. In two prolonged cases with high‐speed drilling, droplets were identified under the barrier and on the tip of the smoke evacuator. Instruments and cottonoids appeared to be a greater contributor to field contamination. Conclusions Negative‐pressure aspiration of air under a chamber barrier, which appears to successfully keep aerosol and droplet contamination to a minimum.