Integrity and filtration efficiency of decontaminated N95/PFF2 masks to protect health care professionals against COVID-19: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

Background: To evaluate the evidence related to maintaining the integrity and filtration efficiency of N95 and/or PFF2 respirators after decontamination in health care professionals' protection against COVID-19.

Methods: Systematic review, developed based on the guidelines from Joanna Briggs Institute for syntheses focusing on effectiveness evidence. The protocol was registered on the International Prospective Register of Ongoing Systematic Reviews platform, under the number CRD42022354256. This study report was developed in accordance with the guidelines recommended by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Publications between January 2020 and August 2022 were selected of Embase, Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane, SciELO and Virtual Health Library databases. Joanna Briggs critical appraisal tool for nonrandomized experimental tests was used to evaluate the evidence quality.

Results: Seven articles were included in the data extraction and critical evaluation, and 3 in the meta-analysis. Four studies evaluated the integrity by visual inspection and 2 by electron microscopy. There was no association between the number of cycles increase and the reduction in filtration in up to 10 cycles. None study was considered of high methodological quality.

Conclusions: There is some evidence that integrity and filtration capacity were maintained after decontamination of N95/PFF2 respirators to prevent COVID-19.