title: Bacterial contamination of gloves worn by small animal surgeons in a veterinary teaching hospital.
abstract: This prospective study investigated bacterial contamination of surgical gloves during small animal surgical procedures and factors associated with glove contamination. The outer surface of surgical gloves was sampled and cultured after completion of surgical procedures. Bacterial presence and numbers were recorded. Of 78 gloves sampled from 39 surgical procedures, bacterial contamination was noted in 16/78 (21%) gloves from 12/39 (31%) procedures. There was no difference in contamination of left or right hand glove [7/39 (18%) versus 9/39 (23%)], respectively (P = 0.78). There was no impact of glove type of left hand (P = 0.41), right hand (P = 0.44) or either hand (P = 0.26) contamination, or of surgical time (P = 0.71), dominant hand (P > 0.13), surgery type (orthopedic versus soft tissue versus neurological) (P > 0.42) or surgical wound classification (P > 0.11) on the incidence of contamination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies (Walker, Singh) and Department of Pathobiology (Rousseau, Weese), Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1.
authors.forename: Meagan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies (Walker, Singh) and Department of Pathobiology (Rousseau, Weese), Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1.
authors.forename: Ameet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies (Walker, Singh) and Department of Pathobiology (Rousseau, Weese), Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1.
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies (Walker, Singh) and Department of Pathobiology (Rousseau, Weese), Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1.
authors.forename: J Scott
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Weese
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058491:Bacterial Load / Q000662:veterinary; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005932:Gloves, Surgical / Q000382:microbiology*; D006762:Hospitals, Animal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009864:Ontario; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013522:Surgery, Veterinary / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*