Reuse of Disposable Isolation Gowns in Rodent Facilities during a Pandemic

Abstract

Reuse of disposable personal protective equipment is traditionally discouraged, yet in times of heightened medical applications such as the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, it can be difficult to obtain. In this article we examine the reuse of disposable gowns with respect to still providing personnel protection. XR7, a fluorescent powder, was used to track contamination of gowns after manipulation of rodent cages. Mouse cages were treated with XR7 prior to manipulations. Disposable gowns were labeled for single person use and hung in common procedure spaces within the vivarium between usages. A simulated rack change of 140 cages was completed using XR7-treated cages. One individual changed all cages with a break occurring after the first 70 cages, requiring the gown to be removed and reused once. To simulate research activities, 5 individuals accessed 3 XR7-treated cages daily for 5 d. Each mouse in the XR7-treated cages was manipulated at least once before returning cages to the housing room. Disposable gowns were reused 5 times per individual. Gowns, gloves, clothing, bare arms, and hands were scanned for fluorescence before and after removing PPE. Fluorescence was localized to gloves and gown sleeves in closest contact with animals and caging. No fluorescence was detected on underlying clothing, or bare arms and hands after removing PPE. Fluorescence was not detected in procedure spaces where gowns were hung. The lack of fluorescence on personnel or surfaces indicate that gowns can be reused 1 time for routine husbandry tasks and up to 5 times for research personnel. A method for decontamination of used gowns using Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP) was also validated for use in areas where animals are considered high risk such as quarantine, or for fragile immunocompromised rodent colonies.

A review of environmental and economic aspects of medical devices, illustrated with a comparative study of double-lumen tubes used for one-lung ventilation

“…Appendix 1. Publication records used in the systematic literature review -publications marked bold are included in Table 3 Reference Topics Singleuse vs. reuse (Agrawal & Tang, 2021) Qualitative environmental & economic considerations X (Albert & Rothkopf, 2015) Economics & waste reduction (Alkhamees et al, 2020) Health economics X (Alshemari et al, 2020) Medical waste reduction (Andrade et al, 2014) Economics & waste reduction (Baker et al, 2020) Medical waste reduction X (Baxter et al, 2021) Life cycle assessment (Bazin et al, 2017) Health economics X (Belkin, 1993) Medical waste reduction X (Bennett et al, 1998) Life cycle assessment (Bhatter et al, 2021) Medical waste reduction (Bhutta, 2021) Life cycle assessment X (Blough & Karsh, 2021) Medical waste reduction (Bruning, 1992) Economics & waste reduction X (Carvalho et al, 2012) Economics & life cycle assessment (Certosimo et al, 2003) Health economics (Chang et al, 2020) Medical waste reduction (Chang, 2020) Medical waste reduction (Chu et al, 2021) Economics & waste reduction (Chua et al, 2021) Life cycle assessment (Chung et al, 2020) Medical waste reduction (Collins et al, 2021) Health economics X (Cunningham et al, 2020) Economics & waste reduction (Daschner & Dettenkofer, 1997) Medical waste reduction (Daughton & Ruhoy, 2009) Medical waste reduction (David, 1985) Life cycle assessment (de Melo et al, 2021) Medical waste reduction X (Delavari et al, 2019) Qualitative environmental & economic considerations (Dettenkofer et al, 1999) Life cycle assessment (Domingo, 2015) Qualitative environmental & economic considerations ( Donahue et al, 2020) Life cycle assessment X (Drew et al, ...…”