Novel Approach to Reduce Transmission of COVID-19 During Tracheostomy

Foster, Peter; Cheung, Tiffany; Craft, Patrick; Baran, Kelsey; Kryskow, Mark; Knowles, Ross; Toia, Alyssa; Galvez, Christian; Bowling, Adam; DiSiena, Michael

Severe infection involving the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome that subsequently requires patients to be intubated and dependent on mechanical ventilation. In the setting of the recent pandemic, there is a greater need to perform tracheostomy for these patients. With the high transmissibility of the virus, there has been an increasing concern for the development of techniques to perform surgical intervention while mitigating the risk for infecting hospital staff. As more data emerge pertaining to viral shedding in various bodily fluids, it has become more important to give special attention to precautions. In this article, we submit a novel approach for better protection and thus reduced transmission for tracheostomy in a COVID-19 positive patient. Importantly, this technique is functional, easy to set up, and can be used for additional operations that involve risk of aerosolization or droplet exposure to operating room staff.