COVID-19 in the Clinic: Human Testing of an Aerosol Containment Mask for Endoscopic Clinic Procedures

Abstract

Objective: To create an aerosol containment mask (ACM) for common otolaryngologic endoscopic procedures that also provides nanoparticle-level protection to patients. Study Design: Prospective feasibility study. Setting: In-person testing with a novel ACM. Methods: The mask was designed in Solidworks and 3D printed. Measurements were made on 10 healthy volunteers who wore the ACM while reading the Rainbow Passage repeatedly and performing a forced cough or sneeze at 5-second intervals over 1 minute with an endoscope in place. Results: There was a large variation in the number of aerosol particles generated among the volunteers. Only the sneeze task showed a significant increase compared with normal breathing in the 0.3-µm particle size when compared with a 1-tailed t test (P =.013). Both the 0.5-µm and 2.5-µm particle sizes showed significant increases for all tasks, while the 2 largest particle sizes, 5 and 10 µm, showed no significant increase (both P