Control of airborne particles in surgical procedures during the Covid-19 pandemic: scoping review.
Giovana Caetano de Araújo Laguardia, Vilanice Alves de Araújo Püschel, Patrícia Peres de Oliveira and 5 others
PMID 35899926WHAT IT FOUND
Operating-room recommendations for controlling airborne particles during COVID-19 clustered into environment, team, and surgical technique: dedicated rooms, ventilation, PPE, screening, aerosol-reducing procedures.
They were mapped mainly from rapid reviews and expert statements, not direct transmission evidence.
Key findings
01The final review sample included 22 documents/studies.
02The included documents comprised 14 reviews, four expert consensus statements, three protocol recommendations, and one technique-development document.
03The mapped recommendations fell into three themes: environment, team, and surgical technique/procedure.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included only English, Portuguese, and Spanish documents published from 2019, so relevant recommendations in other languages or earlier outbreak contexts may have been missed. The included sources were 14 reviews, four expert consensus statements, three protocol recommendations, and one technique-development document. The review did not establish that the mapped strategies prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission; the paper says evidence on a direct relationship between surgical smoke and transmission is lacking. The authors state the results are provisional and may change as scientific knowledge advances.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the mapped operating-room recommendations as proven ways to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The review was built from rapid reviews and expert statements, and the paper says evidence on surgical smoke transmission is lacking.