Table 2.
Healthcare workers’ assessment of respirators decontaminated in an oven. Each decontamination cycle was performed after the respirator had been used for a 12-h work shift in a ward dedicated to patients with coronavirus disease 2019 with 22 intensive care beds.
| Assessment | First decontamination cycle |
Second decontamination cycle |
Third decontamination cycle |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | No | n | Yes | No | n | Yes | No | n | ||||
| Is the respirator dirty? | 8 (24%) | 25 (76%) | 33 | 6 (33%) | 12 (67%) | 18 | 4 (44%) | 5 (56%) | 9 | |||
| Is the elastic functional? | 32 (91%) | 3 (9%) | 35 | 15 (83%) | 3 (17%) | 18 | 10 (91%) | 1 (9%) | 11 | |||
| Is the metal nose clip functional? | 21 (84%) | 4 (16%) | 25 | 9 (100%) | 0 | 9 | 3 (75%) | 1 (25%) | 4 | |||
| Functionality assessment | Better | Worse | Same | n | Better | Worse | Same | n | Better | Worse | Same | n |
| Does the respirator maintain a proper seal? | 3 (9%) | 7 (22%) | 22 (69%) | 32 | 1 (7%) | 4 (26%) | 10 (67%) | 15 | 1 (10%) | 4 (40%) | 5 (50%) | 10 |
| How does breathing compare with previous use? | 1 (3%) | 7 (24%) | 21 (73%) | 29 | 0 | 2 (67%) | 12 (86%) | 14 | 0 | 3 (30%) | 7 (70%) | 10 |