Isolation gowns: a false sense of security?
BACKGROUND
Isolation gowns have traditionally been used in health care situations to protect against microbial contamination. There is now concern over protection of the health care worker from contamination by patients' blood and body fluids. We quantitatively determined the effectiveness of commercially available isolation gowns against human blood leakage or strike through.


METHODS
More than 1200 samples of 11 types of disposable gown and one type of reusable gown (new and washed 40 and 80 times) were tested at five different pressures (0.25 to 2 psi) and six durations (1 second to 2 minutes) by means of an apparatus designed to simulate pressures generated during gown usage.


RESULTS
In all studied conditions, testing showed significant differences (p less than 0.0001) in the amount of strike through allowed by the gowns and demonstrated important differences in the gowns' protective capabilities.


CONCLUSIONS
Although traditional thought assumes that isolation gowns protect the wearer from contamination, our data show this belief may provide a false sense of security.
Lovitt
S A
SA
Department of Surgery, Tulane University, School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112-2669.
Nichols
R L
RL
Smith
J W
JW
Muzik
A C
AC
Pearce
P F
PF
D004058:Diffusion; D004209:Disposable Equipment / Q000592:standards; D004389:Durable Medical Equipment / Q000592:standards; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004865:Equipment and Supplies, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000295:instrumentation*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D011312:Pressure; D011481:Protective Clothing / Q000145:classification / Q000592:standards* / Q000600:supply & distribution