Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE.
Department of Anesthesiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE.
Am J Infect Control. 2021 Mar;49(3):302-308. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.07.037. Epub 2020 Aug 4.
Anesthesia providers are at risk for contracting COVID-19 due to close patient contact, especially during shortages of personal protective equipment. We present an easy to follow and detailed protocol for producing 3D printed face shields and an effective decontamination protocol, allowing their reuse.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) produced face shields using a combination of 3D printing and assembly with commonly available products, and produced a simple decontamination protocol to allow their reuse. To evaluate the effectiveness of the decontamination protocol, we inoculated bacterial suspensions of E. coli and S. aureus on to the face shield components, performed the decontamination procedure, and finally swabbed and enumerated organisms onto plates that were incubated for 12-24 hours. Decontamination effectiveness was evaluated using the average log10 reduction in colony counts.
Approximately 112 face shields were constructed and made available for use in 72 hours. These methods were successfully implemented for in-house production at UNMC and at Tripler Army Medical Center (Honolulu, Hawaii). Overall, the decontamination protocol was highly effective against both E. coli and S. aureus, achieving a ≥4 log10 (99.99%) reduction in colony counts for every replicate from each component of the face shield unit.
Face shields not only act as a barrier against the soiling of N95 face masks, they also serve as more effective eye protection from respiratory droplets over standard eye shields. Implementation of decontamination protocols successfully allowed face shield and N95 mask reuse, offering a higher level of protection for anesthesiology providers at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a time of urgent need, our protocol enabled the rapid production of face shields by individuals with little to no 3D printing experience, and provided a simple and effective decontamination protocol allowing reuse of the face shields.
由于与患者密切接触，麻醉师在 COVID-19 期间面临感染风险，尤其是在个人防护设备短缺期间。我们提供了一个易于遵循的详细协议，用于制作 3D 打印面罩和有效的消毒协议，以允许重复使用。
内布拉斯加大学医学中心（UNMC）使用 3D 打印和常用产品组合来制作面罩，并制作了一个简单的消毒协议，以允许重复使用。为了评估消毒协议的有效性，我们将大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌的细菌悬浮液接种到面罩组件上，进行消毒程序，最后将生物擦拭并计数到培养 12-24 小时的平板上。使用平均对数减少菌落计数来评估消毒效果。
在 72 小时内构建并提供了大约 112 个面罩以供使用。这些方法在内布拉斯加大学医学中心和檀香山的 Tripler 陆军医疗中心（Honolulu，Hawaii）成功实施了内部生产。总体而言，消毒协议对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌非常有效，每个面罩组件的每个重复都实现了≥4 对数（99.99%）的减少。
面罩不仅可以防止 N95 口罩被污染，还可以为标准眼罩提供更有效的眼部保护，防止呼吸飞沫。消毒协议的实施成功允许面罩和 N95 口罩重复使用，在 COVID-19 大流行开始时为麻醉师提供更高水平的保护。
在紧急需求时期，我们的协议使没有或几乎没有 3D 打印经验的个人能够快速制作面罩，并提供了一个简单有效的消毒协议，允许重复使用面罩。
