• Bharat A Panuganti, John Pang, Joseph Califano, and Chan Jason Y K JYK https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9480-4637 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
• Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.
• Head Neck. 2020 Jul 1; 42 (7): 1645-1651.

BackgroundOtolaryngologists represent a subset of health care workers uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19 transmission. Given the segmentation of extant guidelines concerning precautions and protective equipment for SARS-CoV2, we aimed to provide consolidated recommendations regarding appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in head neck surgery during the COVID-19 era.MethodsGuidelines published by international and US governing bodies were reviewed in conjunction with published literature concerning COVID-19 transmission risk, testing, and PPE, to compile situation-specific recommendations for head and neck providers managing COVID-19 patients.ResultsHigh-quality data regarding the aerosolization potential of head and neck instrumentation and appropriate PPE during head and neck surgeries are lacking. However, extrapolation of recommendations by governing bodies suggests strongly that head and neck mucosal instrumentation warrants strict adherence to airborne-level precautions.ConclusionWe present a series of situation-specific recommendations for PPE use and other procedural precautions for otolaryngology providers to consider in the COVID-19 era.© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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