Overview
With the recent global outbreak of COVID-19, many infected patients develop respiratory failure requiring endotracheal intubation. Since COVID-19 is transmitted via droplets and aerosol, healthcare providers who are intubating these patients are at high risk of contracting this deadly virus during the intubation process. Ideally the provider should wear PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators) while intubating patients, which would provide the highest level of protection. Unfortunately, due to the soaring number of infected patients in this pandemic, there is a shortage of PAPRs around the world. Therefore, a lot of providers are only donning face shields and N95 masks. In some hospitals that have run out of N95 masks, some providers are either reusing N95 masks or wearing surgical masks. This puts them at much higher risk of contracting COVID-19. To protect healthcare providers from this virus during the intubation process, Dr. Hsien Yung Lai, an anesthesiologist from Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hua Lian, Taiwan, has designed the Aerosol Box that effectively shields a provider’s face from a patient’s airway, while allowing the provider to move his/her arms freely to perform all necessary tasks during endotracheal intubation. The Aerosol Box can be rapidly and cheaply made to be deployed for field use in the current crisis. He hopes that his invention would help protect the thousands of healthcare providers around the world who are caring for COVID-19-infected patients in this unprecedented crisis.
With the recent global outbreak of COVID-19, many infected patients develop respiratory failure requiring endotracheal intubation. Since COVID-19 is transmitted via droplets and aerosol, healthcare providers who are intubating these patients are at high risk of contracting this deadly virus during the intubation process. Ideally the provider should wear PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators) while intubating patients, which would provide the highest level of protection. Unfortunately, due to the soaring number of infected patients in this pandemic, there is a shortage of PAPRs around the world. Therefore, a lot of providers are only donning face shields and N95 masks. In some hospitals that have run out of N95 masks, some providers are either reusing N95 masks or wearing surgical masks. This puts them at much higher risk of contracting COVID-19. To protect healthcare providers from this virus during the intubation process, Dr. Hsien Yung Lai, an anesthesiologist from Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hua Lian, Taiwan, has designed the Aerosol Box that effectively shields a provider’s face from a patient’s airway, while allowing the provider to move his/her arms freely to perform all necessary tasks during endotracheal intubation. The Aerosol Box can be rapidly and cheaply made to be deployed for field use in the current crisis. He hopes that his invention would help protect the thousands of healthcare providers around the world who are caring for COVID-19-infected patients in this unprecedented crisis.