Results: We identified 6 clinical studies (3 RCTs, 1 cohort study and 2 case-control studies) and 23 surrogate exposure studies. In the metaanalysis of the clinical studies, we found no significant difference between N95 respirators and surgical masks in associated risk of (a) Interpretation: Although N95 respirators appeared to have a protective advantage over surgical masks in laboratory settings, our metaanalysis showed that there were insufficient data to determine definitively whether N95 respirators are superior to surgical masks in protecting health care workers against transmissible acute respiratory infections in clinical settings.
Abstract
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