• Suha Serin and Bahadir Caglar.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Balikesir University, Balikesir, Turkey.
• J Emerg Med. 2021 Mar 1; 60 (3): 292-298.

BackgroundPersonal protective equipment (PPE) is equipment that protects health care workers from harmful agents and organisms. The importance of this equipment was noticed again with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.ObjectivesIn this study, we investigated the effect of different masks used as PPE on resuscitation quality and rescuer fatigue.MethodsParticipants applied chest compression without a mask, with a surgical mask, a filtering face-piece respirator (FFR) mask, and a half-face mask with active P3 filter. A smart watch was worn on the left wrists of the participants during chest compression in each condition. They were requested to rate their fatigue on a visual analogue scale.ResultsStatistically higher average pulse rates were found in the FFR mask and half-face mask conditions. FFR mask and half-face mask resulted in statistically worse results than surgical mask and no-mask conditions in the number of compressions per minute, compression depth, and compression effectiveness. Further, half-face mask and FFR mask caused more fatigue in participants.ConclusionProtective masks other than surgical masks used as PPE increase rescuer fatigue in CPR and negatively affect the quality of chest compressions.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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