TY - JOUR T1 - Environmental Contamination by SARS-CoV-2 During Noninvasive Ventilation in COVID-19 JF - Respiratory Care DO - 10.4187/respcare.10323 SP - respcare.10323 AU - Alessio Dell’Olio AU - Caterina Vocale AU - Alessandra Primavera AU - Lara Pisani AU - Salvatore Altavilla AU - Greta Roncarati AU - Fabio Tumietto AU - Pierluigi Viale AU - Maria Carla Re AU - Tiziana Lazzarotto AU - Stefano Nava AU - V Marco Ranieri AU - Tommaso Tonetti Y1 - 2022/11/15 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/early/2022/11/15/respcare.10323.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND: Environmental contamination by SARS-CoV-2 from patients with COVID-19 undergoing noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in the ICU is still under investigation. This study set out to investigate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces near subjects receiving NIV in the ICU under controlled conditions (ie, use of dual-limb circuits, filters, adequate room ventilation).METHODS: This was a single-center, prospective, observational study in the ICU of a tertiary teaching hospital. Four surface sampling areas, at increasing distance from subject’s face, were identified; and each one was sampled at fixed intervals: 6, 12, and 24 h. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 was detected with real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) test on environmental swabs; the RT-PCR assay targeted the SARS-CoV-2 virus nucleocapsid N1 and N2 genes and the human RNase P gene as internal control.RESULTS: In a total of 256 collected samples, none were positive for SARS-CoV-2 genetic material, whereas 21 samples (8.2%) tested positive for RNase P, thus demonstrating the presence of genetic material unrelated to SARS-CoV-2.CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that application of NIV in an appropriate environment and with correct precautions leads to no sign of surface environmental contamination. Accordingly, our data support the idea that use of NIV in the ICU is safe both for health care workers and for other patients. ER -