As the novel SARS-CoV-2 related infection spread (as of this writing) to over 7 million people worldwide, health care workers have found themselves caring for patients with a highly contagious disease according to changing guidelines that were designed to accommodate the reality of PPE shortages, extended use, and re-use. For the safety of all providers, to conserve PPE and to speed up patient flow through the OR, there remains an urgent need for an accurate answer to the question: “How sure are we that this patient about to be intubated does not have transmissible SARS-CoV-2?”
The reality of caring for patients while not knowing their infectious risk may not be unique to COVID, but the current pandemic poses several layers of complexity for anesthesiologists who face an excess risk due to close proximity to the patient's airway during procedures deemed “aerosol-generating” (such as intubation and extubation). First, there is a...
