Improvising the surgical helmet system for aerosol-generating procedures in the OR: Surgeon designed 3D printed mould for augmented filtration system

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe the process of designing and developing a mould for filter placement via 3D printing on top of the surgical helmet. This mould was designed to affix a filter material on top of the helmet system for use during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2. Method: The authors performed 3D scanning of the Stryker Surgical helmet (Stryker T5, REF 400e610, US patents 6,973,677:7,753,682) and created a negative template of the top of the helmet. A mould for filter placement was printed and fitted onto the top of the surgical helmet. This construct was tested to evaluate the surgeon's comfort, aerosol filtration efficiency etc. 3. Result: The helmet provided adequate comfort, showed no evidence of staining on spill test and the filter passed the industry filtration efficiency standards. 4. Conclusion: The 3D printed mould is an inexpensive, efficient, and comfortable design to augment personal protection ability of the Stryker helmet system. This process can be extrapolated to 3D print templates for other surgical helmets.

Surgical helmets can be converted into efficient disinfectable powered air-purifying respirators

“…During the pandemic, several modifications of surgical helmets have been suggested in the literature. [20][21][22][23] Nevertheless, many of these investigations utilize non-standardized testing procedures, making a direct comparison with the benchmark equipment difficult, if not impossible. Furthermore, most papers lack a complete characterization of the equipment considering the safety issues and the specific threats from bio-aerosols such as the SARS-CoV-19 virus.…”

“…Shah et al 3D-printed a mold over the fan-grid of the Stryker Flyte helmet, which holds an N95 filter medium in place over the fan. 21 In theory, the fan will draw filtered air into the helmet. While Shah et al concept excels in its simplicity, it is unclear whether the fan might draw particles inside the hood, bypassing the filter, for Total Inward Leakage (TIL) of the surgical helmet with PAPR filter adaptor at maximum fan speed in an operation theatre over 23 minutes, after an experimental setup according to Jakobsen et Temmesfeld et al, 2020.…”

Can We Innovatively Modify the Surgical Helmets to Protect Against the Droplets and Aerosols of COVID-19?

“…A 3-layer filter medium (manufacturer Kromega biotech) of 70% proven filtration efficiency (laboratory certified) 4 was affixed over the window of the fan of the helmet (Figure 1A). This was done with the help of an innovatively designed and manufactured fixture that held the filter medium firmly and that sealed the filter medium over and all around the fan grill of the helmet so that the air passes through the filter before entering the grill window of the fan.…”

Novel additive manufacturing applications for communicable disease prevention and control: focus on recent COVID-19 pandemic

“…Scientific community responded quickly in order to find urgent solutions to meet the needs of the whole world. One of the important factors that put the health services of countries into difficulty is the lack of personal protective equipment, drugs, and vaccines to protect from and to cure the coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) [12]. Significant problems have been experienced in procuring many medical materials that are easy to Orcun Guvener and Abdullah Eyidogan contributed equally to this work.…”

“…For example, the COVID-19 outbreak has led to the need to intubate large numbers of patients simultaneously in hospitals, emerging studies to quickly design and fabricate valves for differential multi-ventilation with 3D printing [16]. Several other urgent fabrication requirements for medical devices including face shields and masks [17], powered respirators [18], and surgical helmets [19] were also studied by 3D printing approach. The production of single-use, sterile medical devices, device parts, and accessories has become a great need to eliminate the need for sterilization for re-use, which is possible with the rapid response of 3D printing technology [20,21].…”