effects of a mask on breathing impairment during a fencing assault: a case series study

Background: fencers often complain of progressive difficulty in breathing during matches, which is generally attributed to restricted air, light and heat circulation from wearing a mask. physiologically, the nasal structure generates airflow resistance that can reach -50% of the total respiratory resistance. objectives: this study aims to investigate the presence of nasal obstruction in fencers and the relationship with the use of mask. materials and methods: an observational study on 40 fencers (18 males, 22 females) was conducted. fencers perform a usual assault, wearing the mask and standardized physical exercises (running, sprints and obstacles) without the mask. ent examination with a nasal flexible fiberscope, anterior active rhinomanometry (aar) and peak nasal inspiratory flow (pnif) measurement before and after physical activity with or without the mask was recorded. results: before physical exercise, the total nasal airway resistance mean value for aar was 0.33 ± 0.17 pa/cm3/s at 150 pa. after a match with the mask, the mean value was 0.28 ± 0.16 pa/cm3/s. after normal physical exercises without mask, the mean value was 0.24 ± 0.15 pa/cm3/s. using t tests, statistically significant difference between nasal resistance before and after physical activity (p < 0.05) was observed, but no significant difference in nasal resistance between the basal value and that taken after a match wearing the masks (p = 0.1265). pnif values significantly increase with exercise (p < 0.05). conclusions: our study shows that wearing the mask causes increased breathing impairment in fencers, when compared with similar physical activity without the mask.