Surgical mask
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![Without the manifold buffers afforded by a surgical mask, airborne diseases can be easily transferred via respiratory droplets](/Images/godic/202502/04/Sneeze5538.JPG")
![A Kimberly-Clark procedure mask.[8] Note the full facial shielding and the Droplet Isolation protocol signage.](/Images/godic/202502/04/KimberlyClarkSurgicalMaskBoiseVAMedicalCenter5539.jpg")
![During the 1918 flu pandemic, a street car conductor in Seattle, USA refuses a person who attempts to board without wearing a mask.](/Images/godic/202502/04/165-WW-269B-11-trolley-l5539.jpg")
A surgical mask, also known as a procedure mask, is intended to be worn by health professionals during surgery and during nursing to catch the bacteria shed in liquid droplets and aerosols from the wearer's mouth and nose. Its first recorded use was by the French surgeon Paul Berger during an 1897 operation in Paris.