Clinicians who do not wear masks during endoscopies risk bacterial exposure that could spread infectious diseases to other patients, according to a study published in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
For the six-month study, researchers collected swabs of four gastroenterologists' face masks before and after performing 1,100 procedures during 239 endoscopy sessions. Researchers also took samples from face masks placed on the walls of the endoscopy suite and remote patient intake bay to serve as controls.
Samples taken pre-endoscopy had a significantly lower rate of colony-forming units than samples taken post-endoscopy or from the masks placed on the endoscopy suite wall. The occurrence rate for bacterial exposure was 5.6 per 100 half-days of endoscopy to the endoscopist's face and 3.4 per 100 of endoscopy six feet away.
"While endoscopy staff discard used gloves and gowns, and wash hands after performing endoscopy, we doubt colleagues that do not use face shields wash their faces in between cases," study author Asif Khalid, MD, a gastroenterologist at the VA Pittsburgh (Pa.) Healthcare System and UPMC, told Healio Gastroenterology and Liver Disease. "Inadvertently touching our face and then patients may serve to spread pathogenic bacteria between patients."