Roth Benjamin S, Moschella Phillip, Mousavi Ehsan S, LeMatty Amanda S, Falconer Robert J, Ashley Noah D, Mohammadi Nafchi Ali, Gaafary Chris, DesJardins John D
Prisma Health Upstate University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville Greenville South Carolina USA.
Department of Construction Science and Management Clemson University Clemson South Carolina USA.
J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open. 2022 Jan 22;3(1):e12656. doi: 10.1002/emp2.12656. eCollection 2022 Feb.
To overcome the shortage of personal protective equipment and airborne infection isolation rooms (AIIRs) in the COVID-19 pandemic, a collaborative team of research engineers and clinical physicians worked to build a novel negative pressure environment in the hopes of improving healthcare worker and patient safety. The team then sought to test the device's efficacy in generating and maintaining negative pressure. The goal proved prescient as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later recommended that all barrier devices use negative pressure.
Initially, engineers observed simulations of various aerosol- and droplet-generating procedures using hospital beds and stretchers to determine the optimal working dimensions of the containment device. Several prototypes were made based on these dimensions which were combined with filters and various flow-generating devices. Then, the airflow generated and the pressure differential within the device during simulated patient care were measured, specifically assessing its ability to create a negative pressure environment consistent with standards published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The portable fans were unable to generate any airflow and were dropped from further testing. The vacuums tested were all able to generate a negative pressure environment with the magnitude of pressure differential increasing with the vacuum horsepower. Only the 3.5-horsepower Shop-Vac, however, generated a -3.0 pascal (Pa) pressure gradient, exceeding the CDC-recommended minimum of -2.5 Pa for AIIRs.
A collaborative team of physicians and engineers demonstrated the efficacy of a prototype portable negative pressure environment, surpassing the negative pressure differential recommended by the CDC.
为克服新冠疫情期间个人防护装备和空气传播感染隔离病房（AIIR）的短缺问题，一个由研究工程师和临床医生组成的协作团队致力于构建一种新型负压环境，以期提高医护人员和患者的安全。该团队随后试图测试该设备在产生和维持负压方面的功效。事实证明这一目标颇具先见之明，因为美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）后来建议所有屏障设备都使用负压。
最初，工程师们观察了使用病床和担架进行的各种气溶胶和飞沫产生程序的模拟，以确定隔离设备的最佳工作尺寸。基于这些尺寸制作了几个原型，并与过滤器和各种气流产生装置相结合。然后，测量了模拟患者护理期间设备内产生的气流和压差，特别评估了其创造符合疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）发布标准的负压环境的能力。
便携式风扇无法产生任何气流，因此被排除在进一步测试之外。测试的真空吸尘器都能够产生负压环境，压差大小随真空马力的增加而增大。然而，只有3.5马力的Shop-Vac产生了-3.0帕斯卡（Pa）的压力梯度，超过了CDC对AIIR建议的最低-2.5 Pa。
一个由医生和工程师组成的协作团队证明了一种便携式负压环境原型的功效，超过了CDC建议的负压差。
