Background
Aerosol generation during temporal bone surgery caries the risk of viral transmission. Steps to mitigate this problem are of particular importance during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Objective
To quantify the effect of barrier draping on particulate material dispersion during temporal bone surgery.
Methods
The study involved a cadaveric model in a simulated operating theatre environment. Particle density and particle count for particles sized 1–10 μ were measured in a simulated operating theatre environment while drilling on a cadaveric temporal bone. The effect of barrier draping to decrease dispersion was recorded and analysed.
Results
Barrier draping decreased counts of particles smaller than 5 μ by a factor of 80 in the operating theatre environment. Both particle density and particle count showed a statistically significant reduction with barrier draping (
p
= 0.027).
Conclusion
Simple barrier drapes were effective in decreasing particle density and particle count in the operating theatre model and can prevent infection in operating theatre personnel.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread rapidly across the world and has become a major health emergency in many countries around the globe. The virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, following an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause in December 2019, with most early cases of exposure to live animal market. On 31st December 2019, China announced the outbreak to the World Health Organization (WHO). On 30 th January 2020, WHO declared the latest outbreak of coronavirus as a public health emergency of international concern and then on March 11 th 2020 it was declared as a global pandemic. 1 COVID-19 is known to be caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) virus.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.