peroxide technology to
safely reprocess respira-
tors," says Nancy Havill,
MT (ASCP), MHA, CIC,
infection prevention man-
ager at Yale New Haven
Health.
Airborne hydrogen per-
oxide in the form of a mist
or vapor is typically deliv-
ered via specialized
machines during terminal
cleanings of ORs. The
machines "fog" hydrogen
peroxide vapor or mist
into the air, which covers
every surface in the
enclosed space.
When the coronavirus
pandemic struck and N95
masks were in short supply, Ms. Havill's team got to work and tested
the effectiveness of hydrogen peroxide vapor as a reprocessing
method for used masks. "We developed an experiment involving heav-
ily contaminated N95 masks with three different types of aerosolized
bacteriophages that would mimic a heavy viral load and that were
also safe for humans to handle," says Ms. Havill. "When the process
was over, we tried to recover live bacteriophages from the respira-
tors, and we didn't recover any. Hydrogen peroxide completely
reverts back to oxygen and water, so there are no harmful residues."
Yale New Haven's detailed N95 reprocessing system starts in a nega-
5 2 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 2 0
EASY ACCESS Air purification systems offer a safeguard against disruptions
to OR laminar airflow.
