Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 6;16(1):26.
doi: 10.1186/s13037-022-00332-x.

Reducing the risk of viral contamination during the coronavirus pandemic by using a protective curtain in the operating room

Parastoo Sadeghian  1 , Yang Bi  2 , Guangyu Cao  2 , Sasan Sadrizadeh  3
Affiliations

Reducing the risk of viral contamination during the coronavirus pandemic by using a protective curtain in the operating room

Parastoo Sadeghian et al. Patient Saf Surg. .

Abstract

Background: Airborne transmission diseases can transfer long and short distances via sneezing, coughing, and breathing. These airborne repertory particles can convert to aerosol particles and travel with airflow. During the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many surgeries have been delayed, increasing the demand for establishing a clean environment for both patient and surgical team in the operating room.

Methods: This study aims to investigate the hypothesis of implementing a protective curtain to reduce the transmission of infectious contamination in the surgical microenvironment of an operating room. In this regard, the spread of an airborne transmission disease from the patient was evaluated, consequently, the exposure level of the surgical team. In the first part of this study, a mock surgical experiment was established in the operating room of an academic medical center in Norway. In the second part, the computational fluid dynamic technique was performed to investigate the spread of airborne infectious diseases. Furthermore, the field measurement was used to validate the numerical model and guarantee the accuracy of the applied numerical models.

Results: The results showed that the airborne infectious agents reached the breathing zone of the surgeons. However, using a protective curtain to separate the microenvironment between the head and lower body of the patient resulted in a 75% reduction in the spread of the virus to the breathing zone of the surgeons. The experimental results showed a surface temperature of 40 ˚C, which was about a 20 ˚C increase in temperature, at the wound area using a high intensity of the LED surgical lamps. Consequently, this temperature increase can raise the patient's thermal injury risk.

Conclusion: The novel method of using a protective curtain can increase the safety of the surgical team during the surgery with a COVID-19 patient in the operating room.

Keywords: Airborne infectious disease; COVID-19; Computational fluid dynamics; Operating room; Protective curtain; Thermal injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare to have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
OR configuration with a) an isometric view, and b) measurement plane and instrument
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparison of a) velocity; and b) temperature distribution between CFD simulation and experimental results
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Visualizing the temperature distribution in the surgical microenvironment
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Visualizing the airflow behaviour in the surgical microenvironment
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The spread of tracer gas from the patient's mouth a) case 1: high intensity-LED surgical lamp; b) case 2: low intensity-LED surgical lamp; and case 3: high intensity-LED surgical lamp with a curtain
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Duguid JP. The size and the duration of air-carriage of respiratory droplets and droplet-nuclei. J Hyg (Lond) 1946;44:471–479. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Naseri A, Emdad H, Mehrabi S, Sadrizadeh S, Abouali O. Inhalability of micro-particles through the human nose breathing at high free-stream airflow velocities. Build Environ. 2020;179:106948. doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106948. - DOI
    1. Hinds WC. Aerosol Technology : Properties, Behavior, and Measurement of Airborne Particles. 1999. p. 3.
    1. Stadnytskyi V, Bax CE, Bax A, Anfinrud P. The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;117:11875–11877. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2006874117. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Edwards DA, Man JC, Brand P, Katstra JP, Sommerer K, Stone HA, et al. Inhaling to mitigate exhaled bioaerosols. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004;101:17383–17388. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0408159101. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources