title: Surgical gloves. How do you change yours?
abstract: Surgical gloves are frequently changed intraoperatively, and different techniques exist. We surveyed surgeons and scrub staff in our hospital and prospectively compared contamination between two glove changing techniques. We questioned 25 surgeons and 25 scrub staff regarding their intra-operative glove changing technique. Twenty scrub staff performed a standard 'surgical scrub', following which aliquots of fluorescent powder were applied symmetrically to each forearm prior to donning gown and gloves. Subjects were randomised to group 1-open technique (OT) followed by closed technique (CT), or group 2-CT followed by OT. Following unassisted glove change, glove and hand contamination was assessed.
authors.affiliation: Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, Devon, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duxbury
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lambert
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005932:Gloves, Surgical / Q000382:microbiology*; D006225:Hand / Q000382:microbiology*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D007430:Intraoperative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D011446:Prospective Studies