Risk of Covid-19 infection during endoscopy: Efficacy of personal protective equipment (PPE) in protecting health professionals
Abstract
Objectives: To correlate compliance to personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols and risk of exposure to SARS-COV-2 infection in endoscopy staff.
Methods: We included 85 endoscopic procedures performed at Lahore General Hospital from May to July 2020. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) were implemented for patient selection, risk stratification and personal protective equipment (PPE) use for endoscopy staff. Patient and endoscopy staff were followed for Covid-19 infection. PPE scores for staff and Covid-19 positivity on follow-up were correlated using student’s t test.
Results: Following 85 procedures included, 2 (2.3%) patients became Covid-19 positive. PPE score was <9 in 5 (5.8%) procedures for endoscopist and Covid-19 developed in 2 (2.3%) of them, PPE score was <9 during 19 (22.3%) procedures in 1st assistant and 9 (10.5%) developed infection and for 2nd assistant PPE score was <9 in 19(22.3%) endoscopies and 5 (5.9%) tested positive for covid-19. Infectivity of endoscopy staff was 6.2%. Association between PPE score and risk of Covid-19 was not significant. (p value 0.51 for endoscopist, 0.10 for 1st assistant and 0.09 for 2nd assistant).
Conclusion: Compliance of SOPs for infection control reduces risk of acquiring Covid-19 infection during endoscopy. Proper use of PPE is effective for safety of endoscopy staff.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4057
How to cite this:
Dilshad MA, Sarwar S, Aslam F, Shabbir A, Rasool S, Tayyab GN. Risk of Covid-19 infection during endoscopy: Efficacy of personal protective equipment (PPE) in protecting health professionals. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(4):1093-1098. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.4.4057
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
