Aerosol containment box to the rescue: extra protection for the front line

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic has created shortages of vital personal protective equipment that threatens healthcare workers’ risk of exposure, a need for innovative new ways to protect healthcare workers has emerged. An aerosol containment box that covers the patient’s head and neck in bed provides a solution to protect clinicians during aerosol-generating procedures such as intubation. We collaborated with original designer HYL and modified the size to adapt to larger patients and operator mobility. We expand its applicability by allowing the use of different instruments. The container is outfitted with an ultra-low particulate air-equipped filtration vacuum device to create negative pressure within the chamber and actively remove floating droplet nuclei generated during a procedure. This barrier method will be a valuable and economical option to protect healthcare workers on the front line globally during this pandemic and beyond.