Meenakshi Hospital in Thanjavur, which is part of the Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre in Madurai, has designed a cost-effective purifying respirator system that can help protect surgeons and other healthcare professionals in operation theatres from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
A statement issued by the hospital said that the equipment named as Tanjore Air Purifying Respirator (TAPR) delivered compressed medical grade compressed air, which is already available in operation theatres, to healthcare professionals through a hood.
The unit can be set up at ₹3,000 per person, whereas the conventional Power Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) could cost around ₹1.2 lakh per person.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kesavamoorthy Bhoopalan, Senior Consultant - Cardiology, Meenakshi Hospital, who designed the new system, said that the objective of TAPR was to come up with a cost-effective yet improved air purifying system.
“The conventional PAPR takes air from the Operation Theatre and cleans it using a filter before sending it to the user. But TAPR uses air that has gone through multiple filters and frequent quality checks. There is no chance of contamination,” he said.
Guru Shankar, Chairman, Meenakshi Hospital, said that with experts opining that COVID-19 is here to stay for a long time, the likelihood of a surgeon having to perform an elective surgery for a patient infected with Covid-19 is going to be more. “Today, healthcare professionals use N95 respirators and for a higher level of protection PAPR systems. Though PAPR is safe and reusable, there is a risk of contamination. However, TAPR guarantees 100% protection,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dr. Kesavamoorthy said that unlike PAPR that required meticulous cleaning after every procedure, TAPR required no cleaning at all. Further, TAPR can work endlessly as it did not need a battery. “PAPR is bulky because it has many components but TAPR with just an air flow regulator and a simple long tube is weightless,” he added.
The statement said that the hospital did not want to patent the design.