Evaluation of a new mobile system for protecting immune-suppressed patients against airborne contamination
Jean-Louis Poirot MDa, Jean-Pierre Gangneux MDb, Alain Fischer MD, PhDc, Mireille Malbernard RNc, Svetlana Challier MDd, Nicolas Laudinet BSce and Vance Bergeron PhDf, 
, 
aHôpital Saint-Antoine, Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Paris, France
bCentre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rennes, Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Rennes, France
cHôpital Necker, Service d'Immuno-Hématologie Pédiatrique, Paris, France
dLaboratoire de Microbiologie, Paris, France
eirInSpace SAS, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France
fEcole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique CNRS UMR 5672, Lyon, France
Available online 29 August 2007.
Background
Invasive aspergillosis is one of the most lethal airborne dangers for immune-suppressed subjects. Providing patient protection from such airborne threats requires costly and high-maintenance facilities. We herein evaluate a new self-contained mobile unit as an alternative for creating a patient protective environment.
Methods
Airborne contamination levels were monitored for different simulated scenarios and under actual clinical conditions. Functional tests were used to challenge the unit under adverse conditions, and a preliminary clinical study with patients and staff present was performed at 2 different French hospitals.
Results
Functional tests demonstrated that the unit can rapidly decontaminate air in the protected zone created by the unit and in the surrounding room. In addition, the protected zone is not sensitive to large disturbances that occur in the room. The clinical study included 4 patients with 150 accumulated days of testing. The protected zone created by the unit systematically provided an environment with undetectable airborne fungal levels (ie, <1 CFU/m3) regardless of the levels in the room or corridor (P < .01).
Conclusions
These tests show that the unit can be used to create a mobile protective environment for immune-suppressed patients in a standard hospital setting.
No conflict of interest exists for any of the authors.Address correspondence to Vance Bergeron, PhD, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique CNRS UMR 5672, 46 allée d'Italie 69007 Lyon, France.
| American Journal of Infection Control Volume 35, Issue 7, September 2007, Pages 460-466 |
