Assessing patterns of body contamination after personal protective equipment removal among health care workers: A scoping review.

Background: It is now widely recognized that health care personnel (HCP) are at risk of contamination with pathogens during personal protective equipment (PPE) doffing. Studies of this phenonemona, have utilized a variety of PPE ensembles, doffing methods, and experimental methods.

Methods: A scoping review was performed, consistent with PRISMA guidance. The PubMed and sciVerse Scopus databases were searched using an a priori search strategy. Data were extracted for analysis using the matrix method, and then a narrative analysis was performed. Articles were classified based on PPE ensemble.

Results: Only 19 of 151 articles were included in the final analysis. All included studies reported some post-doffing contamination, and this contamination was most frequently observed on the hands, wrist, face, and neck. Reviewed studies used a variety of tracer contaminants, PPE ensembles, doffing protocols, tracer assessment locations, and methods, making it difficult to identify patterns across studies.

Discussion&concluisons: Additional research is needed to improve the study methodology related to the selection and placement of tracers to ensure sensitive detection of post-doffing contamination, compare how specific doffing procedures or pieces of PPE influence post-doffing contamination, and to understand what post-doffing contamination means for patient and HCP infection risk.