Understanding the Issues of Double Gloving
In Quebbeman’s 1992 glove study of exposure in the surgical environment, he reported
a 51% hand contamination rate for those who single gloved versus a 7% contamination
rate for those who double gloved.
14 The authors of the 2002 Cochrane
Review looked at 18 studies on double gloving. The studies covered a variety of
surgical specialties from orthopedic to cardiac surgery. The studies demonstrated
that double gloving increased barrier protection to the wearer compared to single
gloving.
Conclusions from the Cochrane review found that “two layers of surgical gloves can
reduce the number of breaks to the innermost glove that might allow cross-infection
between the surgical team and patient…a second pair of gloves does protect the first
set, without apparently lessening surgical skill.” Chapman and Duff reported data
on double gloving in obstetrical procedures. Of 67 sets of double gloves studied,
66 holes were found in the outer gloves and seven holes in the inner glove. Their
summary found the difference in the frequency of injury of inner and outer gloves
to be highly significant. This resulted in new recommendations to double glove routinely
in obstetric procedures.
15
Although puncture of the outer glove is common, corresponding punctures of both
the inner and outer gloves are rare. Double gloving reduces risk of exposure to
patient blood by as much as 87% when the outer glove is punctured.
8 Albin
found in his studies that double gloves had leaks 25% of the time, while the single
gloves had leaks 59% of the time when tested at 15-minute intervals.
16
Another study done by Greco and Garza supported the double glove data, stating that
operating room personnel’s risk decreased by 70% in comparison with single glove
use.
17 All of these studies support the wearing of two pairs of surgical
gloves. The practice of double gloving is supported by sound research and data.
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