
April 21, 2020
N95 Mask Decontamination and Reuse
Introduction: N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFP, from here out referred to as N95) are designed to filter out 95% of airborne particles and are intended for single use. During the COVID19 pandemic, N95s are in short supply forcing us to consider reuse of the devices in order to maintain protection in clinical environments. However, there is only limited data on safe decontamination and reuse practices. As of the writing of this post, it is unclear when adequate supplies of N95s will be available and numerous hospitals have already started reuse protocols. Here, we review the current literature and recommendations. It’s important to recognize that both ability to filter and fit of the N95 are important in terms of use and reuse. Of note, residual virus may be present after any of these methods but, amounts remaining should not produce clinical infection.