Is it possible to decontaminate N95 masks in pandemic times? Integrative literature review

• Autor(a) principal: Adriana Cristina de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Thabata Coaglio Lucas
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMG
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-1447.2021.20200146; http://hdl.handle.net/1843/55386; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4821-6068; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7850-8494
• topic: Respiratory protective devices; Decontamination; Coronavirus; Coronavirus infections; Pandemics; Dispositivos de Proteção Respiratória; Respiradores N95; COVID-19; Infecções por Coronavirus; Reutilização de Equipamento

Objective: To evaluate the protocols on decontamination/reuse of N95 masks available in the literature in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. Method: Integrative literature review, in the period from 2010 to 2020, on the databases MEDLINE/PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane, SAGE journals, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase and Wiley, with the descriptors Masks AND Respiratory protective devices; Mask OR N95 AND Covid-19; N95 AND Respirators; Decontamination AND N95 AND Coronavirus; Facemask OR Pandemic. Results: Twelve studies were included, of which 3 (30.0%) used ultraviolet germicidal irradiation and indicated mask deterioration between 2 and 10 cycles, 4 (40.0%) used hydrogen peroxide vapor, and seal loss varied from 5 to 20 cycles, 4 (33.3%) evaluated the structural integrity of the N95 mask through visual inspection and 6 (54.4%), its filtration efficiency. Conclusion: Reuse strategies to overcome a shortage of devices in the face of the pandemic challenge the current concept for good practices in health-product processing.