COVID-19: a Study About Aerosol Formation During Gastroscopy With a Adjusted Mouthpiece for Droplet Reduction

During esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), a hard-plastic mouthpiece is used to protect the endoscope from being bitten and to enable its smooth insertion. In September 2020, the droplet reduction Mouthpiece "B1" (Mouthpiece MPC-ST GMDN:62534 Generic name: Endoscopic bite block, basic, reusable) was launched by Fujifilm Corporation, Tokyo, Japan and imported to Europe by Fujifilm Europe. The droplet reduction mouthpiece is used in the same way as the conventional mouthpiece but differs from current mouthpieces by the inclusion of a sponge rubber incorporated into the mouthpiece orifice, and a drape shield specifically created to catch and reduce the droplets emitted by the patient during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. This newly developed mouthpiece is considered for application during routine endoscopy at our facility during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to minimize the risk to health care workers and patients from becoming infected with COVID-19 and various other pathogens. However, there is a lack of scientific evidence on the amount of aerosol reduction with the modified mouthpiece when upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is being performed.

The aim of the present study is to quantify the generation of aerosols when performing upper GI endoscopy with the modified mouthpiece. The investigators intend to quantify the number of particles in the air near the patient. The duration of therapeutic upper gastrointestinal endoscopies can vary extremely. To avoid risk of imbalance in procedure durations, the investigational team is limiting the protocol to standard diagnostic EGDs. The investigators assume that aerosol generations during short procedures can be extrapolated to longer procedures and hence this should not invalidate the findings