Aerosol mitigation in upper airway surgery.

Background: Aerosol generating procedures pose a risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and comprise a large percentage of cases performed in otolaryngology. An optimal method to mitigate this hazard does not currently exist. This study examined methods to mitigate surgical aerosols from the operating room.

Methods: Utilizing an intubation manikin (Nasco Healthcare) and particle counter (Sensirion SPS30), a series of electrocautery-induced aerosols containing particles 0.5-10 μm in diameter were measured. Three different mitigation strategies were tested: intraoral (Yankauer, suction Bovie pencil (SBP)), extraoral (smoke evacuator system (SES)), and their combinations.

Results: SES was effective compared to controls, but inferior to intraoral mitigation strategies (p < 0.0001). Combining SES with any intraoral mitigation strategy did not enhance mitigation efficiency, and in some comparisons led to inferior performance (SBP vs SBP-SES, p < 0.05). Comparison of intraoral mitigation strategies found no statistically significant differences between techniques, although SBP was found to have the lowest overall level of particles.

Conclusions: Intraoral suction techniques are recommended for aerosol mitigation. Extraoral SES use alone is insufficient for aerosol mitigation, and may be counterproductive when used with intraoral suction techniques. Further research is needed to determine the optimal mitigation strategy for intraoperative surgical aerosols.