N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators in Healthcare

Posted by Emam Hossain Shakil on May 11th, 2021

119701833_129241458890522_22498643856376

This document recommends practices for extended use and limited reuse of NIOSH-certified N95 filtering facepiece respirators (commonly called “N95 respirators”). The recommendations are intended for use by professionals who manage respiratory protection programs in healthcare institutions to protect health care workers from job-related risks of exposure to infectious respiratory illnesses.

Supplies of N95 mask made in usa can become depleted during an influenza pandemic (1-3) or wide-spreadoutbreaks of other infectious respiratory illnesses.(4) Existing CDC guidelines recommend a combination of approaches to conserve supplies while safeguarding health care workers in such circumstances. These existing guidelines recommend that health care institutions:

Minimize the number of individuals who need to use respiratory protection through the preferential use of engineering and administrative controls;
Use alternatives to N95 respirators (e.g., other classes of filtering facepiece respirators, elastomeric half-mask and full facepiece air purifying respirators, powered air purifying respirators) where feasible;
Implement practices allowing extended use and/or limited reuse of N95 respirators, when acceptable; and
Prioritize the use of N95 respirators for those personnel at the highest risk of contracting or experiencing complications of infection.
This document focuses on one of the above strategies, the extended use and limited reuse of N95 respirators only; please consult the CDC or NIOSH website for guidance related to implementing the other recommended approaches for conserving supplies of N95 respirators.

There are also non-emergency situations (e.g., close contact with patients with tuberculosis) where N95 respirator reuse has been recommended in healthcare settings and is commonly practiced.(5-9) This document serves to supplement previous guidance on this topic.

Definitions
Extended use refers to the practice of wearing the same N95 respirator for repeated close contact encounters with several patients, without removing the respirator between patient encounters. Extended use is well suited to situations wherein multiple patients are infected with the same respiratory pathogen and patients are placed together in dedicated waiting rooms or hospital wards. Extended use has been recommended as an option for conserving respirators during previous respiratory pathogen outbreaks and pandemics.(10, 11)

Reuse1 refers to the practice of using the same N95 respirator for multiple encounters with patients but removing it (‘doffing’) after each encounter. The respirator is stored in between encounters to be put on again (‘donned’) prior to the next encounter with a patient. For pathogens in which contact transmission (e.g., fomites) is not a concern, non-emergency reuse has been practiced for decades.(7) For example, for tuberculosis prevention, CDC recommends that a respirator classified as disposable can be reused by the same worker as long as it remains functional2 and is used in accordance with local infection control procedures.(9) Even when N95 respirator reuse is practiced or recommended, restrictions are in place which limit the number of times the same FFR is reused.Thus, N95 respirator reuse is often referred to as “limited reuse”. Limited reuse has been recommended and widely used as an option for conserving respirators during previous respiratory pathogen outbreaks and pandemics.(2, 3, 10-12)

Like it? Share it!


Emam Hossain Shakil

About the Author

Emam Hossain Shakil
Joined: September 21st, 2020
Articles Posted: 15

More by this author