Design and effect evaluation on a local negative pressure isolation protection system on sickbed

Objective To design a local negative pressure isolation protection system on sickbed for infectious patients and conduct experimental research on its performance to analyze and evaluate the reliability and safety of its isolation protection against biological aerosol.

Methods A local negative pressure isolation protection system on sickbed was designed with consideration to the structural type and materials. Then, the system was tested in terms of subjects′ experience, static and dynamic pressure difference, and noise. Particularly, the isolation protection performance of this system against biological aerosol in micro-circumstance airtight cabin was tested.

Results The local negative pressure isolation protection system on sickbed quickly established a stable local negative pressure difference within 1 min, with a maximum fluctuation error of 4.6%. The average noise under the maximum air volume was 64.2 dB(A). When Serratia marcescens aerosol with a maximum concentration of 1.4 × 10¹¹ CFU/mL was atomized inside the isolation hood, the aerosol leakage rate outside the hood was 0, which showed that the local negative pressure isolation protection system on sickbed could effectively cut off the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms in the air. Moreover, the subjects had a good subjective experience.

Conclusions The designed local negative pressure isolation protection system on sickbed is comfortable, lightweight, and portable, which can be used to reduce the risk of microbial spread among respiratory patients.