Protective Clothing in Endoscopy
Putting on and taking off personal protective equipment (PPE)
In endoscopy, employees are constantly exposed to various potentially biohazardous materials. Personal protective equipment is crucial to staff protection and infection control. But how has the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) changed since the start of the pandemic?
Endoscopic examinations can lead to spray from secretions, excretions and aerosol formation. Therefore, reliable, adequate respiratory protection for staff must be ensured during examinations. This requires a risk analysis and a hazard assessment of the individual examinations. Endoscopy, Occupational Health & Safety, and Hygiene usually work together to prepare these.
This article is about PPE in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It is intended to illustrate how to put on and take off PPE. Depending on the hazard assessments, the individual items of PPE in endoscopy are:
There is no set way of putting on and taking off protective clothing. The various expert associations for occupational health & safety and hygiene provide different guidance on how to put on and take off PPE in a low-contamination manner. The various workplaces should define a concept for their facility after reading the recommendations, and constantly train employees on the procedure for putting on and taking off PPE. Staff must feel confident in handling PPE in order to prevent contamination and transmission.
The diagrams provided show a way of putting on and taking off PPE according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
| Items of personal protective equipment (PPE) | Performance requirements and testing procedures |
| Face coverings/respiratory protection; medical face masks | DIN EN 14683:2019+AC:201911 |
| Respiratory protective devices, filtering half masks to protect against particles | DIN EN 149:2001+A1:2009 |
| Protective gowns; protective clothing | DIN EN 14126:2003 |
| Protective gloves against dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms – Part 1 | DIN EN ISO 374-1:2018-10 |
| Medical gloves for single use – Part 1 | DIN EN 455-1:2020-07 |
| Protective goggles, personal eye protection | DIN EN 166:2001 |
Heidrun Groten-Schweitzer is an Infection Control Nurse (ICN) at the UKE (Universitätsklinikum Eppendorf [University Hospital Eppendorf in Hamburg]). She has been working in the hygiene sector for many years, focusing on the reprocessing of medical devices, inspection of healthcare facilities, building hygiene and prevention of infectious diseases. Alongside her training role, she is chairwoman of the Department for Hygiene in Outpatient and Inpatient Nursing and Geriatric Care/Rehabilitation at the German Society for Hospital Hygiene.
