Key points
- Endonasal surgery performed using either cold steel or powered
instrumentation is an aerosol generating procedure, with both
macroscopically visible droplets and particles smaller than 10µm
detected outside the nasal cavity during simulated surgery.
- The results of several case series suggest that combining preoperative
patient screening and PPE use is successful in mitigating risk of
infection.
- Suction, and in particular the introduction of additional suction
devices, has been demonstrated to reduce aerosolisation during
simulated rhinological surgery.
- Though a number of innovative adjunctive strategies have been proposed
for mitigating risk, there is limited data to support their widespread
adoption over other methods.
- No study has considered the presence of viability of COVID-19 within
droplets aerosolised from the nasal cavity which represents a notable
limitation on work to date.