Placing a mask on COVID-19 patients during high-flow nasal cannula therapy reduces aerosol particle dispersion

Jie Li; James B Fink; Ahmad A Elshafei; Laurel M Stewart; Hannah J Barbian; Sara H Mirza; Lena Al-Harthi; David Vines; Stephan Ehrmann

doi:10.1183/23120541.00519-2020

Placing a mask on COVID-19 patients during high-flow nasal cannula therapy reduces aerosol particle dispersion

ERJ Open Res. 2021 Jan 25;7(1):00519-2020. doi: 10.1183/23120541.00519-2020. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Authors

Jie Li¹, James B Fink^{1

2}, Ahmad A Elshafei¹, Laurel M Stewart¹, Hannah J Barbian³, Sara H Mirza^{1

4}, Lena Al-Harthi³, David Vines¹, Stephan Ehrmann^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Dept of Cardiopulmonary Sciences, Division of Respiratory Care, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
² Aerogen Pharma Corp, San Mateo, CA, USA.
³ Dept of Microbial Pathogens and Immunity, Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴ Dept of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁵ CHRU Tours, Médecine Intensive Réanimation, CIC INSERM 1415, CRICS-TriggerSEP Research Network, Tours, France.
⁶ INSERM, Centre d'étude des pathologies respiratoires, U1100, Université de Tours, Tours, France.

Abstract

Wearing a surgical/procedure mask over high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) reduces aerosol particle concentrations in the patients' vicinity. Wearing a mask over HFNC should be encouraged to reduce risks of aerosol transmission. #COVID19 https://bit.ly/2HLg5cE.