Adverse Effects of Personal Protective Equipment Among Intensive Care Unit Healthcare Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Takeshi Unoki; Hideaki Sakuramoto; Ryuhei Sato; Akira Ouchi; Tomoki Kuribara; Tomomi Furumaya; Junko Tatsuno; Yuki Wakabayashi; Asami Tado; Naoya Hashimoto; Noriko Inagaki; Yoshiko Sasaki; from the Committee and working group of COVID-19 Task Force of the Japan Academy of Critical Care Nursing

doi:10.1177/23779608211026164

Adverse Effects of Personal Protective Equipment Among Intensive Care Unit Healthcare Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

SAGE Open Nurs. 2021 Jun 17:7:23779608211026164. doi: 10.1177/23779608211026164. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Acute and Critical Care Nursing, School of Nursing, Sapporo City University, Sapporo City University, Sapporo, Japan.
² Department of Adult Health Nursing, College of Nursing, Ibaraki Christian University, Hitachi, Japan.
³ Department of Critical Care Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
⁴ Department of Adult Health Nursing, School of Nursing, Sapporo City University, Sapporo, Japan.
⁵ High Care Unit of Advanced Emergency and Critical Care Center, Saitama Red Cross Hospital, Saitama, Japan.
⁶ Department of Nursing, Kokura Memorial Hospital, Kitakyusyu, Japan.
⁷ Department of Nursing, Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, Kobe, Japan.
⁸ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Yamaguchi University, Ube, Japan.
⁹ Department of Advanced Critical Care and Emergency Center, Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Sapporo, Japan.
¹⁰ Faculty of Nursing, Setsunan University, Hirakata, Japan.
¹¹ Department of Disaster and Critical Care Nursing, Graduate School of Health Care Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Introduction: To avoid exposure to SARS-COV-2, healthcare professionals use personal protective equipment (PPE) while treating COVID-19 patients. Prior studies have revealed the adverse effects (AEs) of PPE on healthcare workers (HCWs); however, no review has focused on the AEs of PPE on HCWs in intensive care units (ICUs). This review aimed to identify the AEs of PPE on HCWs working in ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted. MEDLINE, CINAHL, the World Health Organization (WHO) global literature on COVID-19, and Igaku-chuo-zasshi (a Japanese medical database), Google Scholar, medRxiv, and Health Research Board (HRB) open research were searched from January 25-28, 2021. The extracted data included author(s) name, year of publication, country, language, article title, journal name, publication type, study methodology, population, outcome, and key findings.

Results: The initial search identified 691 articles and abstracts. Twenty-five articles were included in the analysis. The analysis comprised four key topics: studies focusing on PPE-related headache, voice disorders, skin manifestations, and miscellaneous AEs of PPE. The majority of AEs for HCWs in ICUs were induced by prolonged use of masks.

Conclusion: The AEs of PPE among HCWs in ICUs included heat, headaches, skin injuries, chest discomfort, and dyspnea. Studies with a focus on specific diseases were on skin injuries. Moreover, many AEs were induced by prolonged use of masks.

Keywords: COVID-19; healthcare worker; intensive care unit; occupational health; personal protective equipment.

Publication types

Review