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Laryngoscopic Examination During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Turkish Voice Speech and Swallowing Disorders Society and Turkish Professional Voice Society Recommendations

10.5152/tao.2020.5719

  • H. Bengü Çobanoğlu
  • Necati Enver
  • Sevtap Akbulut
  • E. Özlem Atmış
  • Hakan Birkent
  • Çiler Büyükatalay
  • Erhan Demirhan
  • İlter Denizoğlu
  • Ramil Haşimli
  • Müge Özçelik Korkmaz
  • Selmin Karataylı Özgürsoy
  • Kayhan Öztürk
  • Ceki Paltura
  • Seher Şirin
  • Emel Çadallı Tatar
  • Arzu Tüzüner
  • Kürşat Yelken
  • H. Hakan Coşkun
  • Haldun Oğuz
  • Ferhan Öz

Received Date: 25.06.2020 Accepted Date: 15.09.2020 Turk Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2020;58(4):274-278

COVID-19 is highly transmissible and spreads rapidly in the population. This increases the occupational risk for health care workers. In otolaryngology clinic practice, patients with upper respiratory tract infection symptoms are common. Also, routine head and neck examinations such as oral cavity examination, nasal/nasopharyngeal examination, or video laryngostroboscopic evaluation are highly risky because of the aerosol formation. To emphasize this issue, two leading otolaryngology organizations in Turkey; 'Voice Speech and Swallowing Disorders Society', and 'Professional Voice Society' gathered a task force. This task force aimed to prepare a consensus report that would provide practical recommendations of the safety measurements during routine clinical care of laryngology patients. To fulfill this, universal aim, on the 2nd and 9th of May 2020, two web-based meetings were conducted by 20 expert physicians. This eighteen items list was prepared as an output.

Keywords: Laryngoscopy, endoscopic examination, COVID-19, pandemic, universal precautions