• Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg · Dec 2020

    High-Efficiency Particulate Air Filters in the Era of COVID-19: Function and Efficacy.

    • David A Christopherson, William C Yao, Mingming Lu, R Vijayakumar, and Ahmad R Sedaghat.
    • Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
    • Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2020 Dec 1; 163 (6): 1153-1155.

    AbstractAerosol-generating procedures in the office represent a major concern for health care-associated infection of patients and health care providers by SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet provided any recommendations for the use of portable air purifiers, air purifiers with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters have been discussed as an adjunctive means for decontamination of SARS-CoV-2 aerosols in health care settings. This commentary discusses HEPA filter mechanisms of action, decontamination time based on efficiency and flow rate, theoretical application to SARS-CoV-2, and limitations. HEPA filter functionality and prior guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for SARS-CoV-1 suggest theoretical efficacy for HEPA filters to decontaminate airborne SARS-CoV-2, although direct studies for SARS-CoV-2 have not been performed. Any portable HEPA purifier utilization for SARS-CoV-2 should be considered an adjunctive infection control measure and undertaken with knowledge of HEPA filter functionality and limitations in mind.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…