Risk mitigation to healthcare workers against viral and bacterial bioaerosol load in laparoscopic surgical exhaust with a new flow mode in hollow fiber membranes-based filter

Laparoscopy of COVID-19-infected/suspected patients need to be performed with the utmost care due to the chances of virus carryover through the pneumoperitoneum gas. In this study, polysulfone (Psf)/polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP) hollow fiber membranes (HFMs) were fabricated by phase inversion process, and these HFMs were bundled into a module consisting of tortuous, circular-helical arrangement. Further, copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) nanoparticles (NPs), known to have antimicrobial and antiviral properties, were flow-coated on the lumen side of the HFMs. To test functional efficiency, the modules were challenged with wet aerosol and bioaerosols. Wet aerosol removal efficiency was ~98%. Bioaerosol-containing bacteria E. coli strain K-12, showed 2.6log (~99.8%), and 2.1log (~99.3%) removal efficiency for Cu NPs and Zn NPs coated HFMs modules respectively, and 1.6log (~97%) removal for plain (uncoated) HFMs. Bioaerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 surrogate virus (MS2 bacteriophage) showed ~5-7log reduction of bacteriophage for plain HFMs, 3.9log, and 2.3log reduction for Cu and Zn coated respectively. The flow of aerosols entirely through the HFM lumen helps in attaining a low ΔP of