Background: Blood-borne infection is an ever-present fear for medical professionals, especially
surgeons and operating room personnel. Safety is paramount, and the reliability and
efficacy of surgical gloves are crucial, as gloves are the most important barriers protecting
hospital personnel and patients. Unfortunately, glove perforation rates are as high as 78% in
high-risk procedures. As well as being efficacious, surgical gloves must be comfortable and
easy to don, and when holes are present, it is imperative they be detected expeditiously. The
purpose of this double-blind randomized study was to evaluate the ability of participants to
locate 30-micron laser holes in surgical gloves while performing simulated surgery and to
evaluate the Biogel® Indicator™ Glove System, which reveals punctures.
Methods: Twenty glove configurations (eight single, twelve double) were tested, half of
which had laser-created holes. Each of the 25 participants tested and evaluated 20 configurations
randomly. Simulated surgery terminated when a hole was identified by the participant
or at the end of two minutes, whichever occurred first. Participants also rated their perceptions
of each glove's features on questionnaires, all of which were returned, with 95.8% being
complete.
Results: Participants found 84% and 56% of the holes in the two indicator systems, latex
and synthetic, in an average of 22 seconds and 42 seconds, respectively. In the worst-performing
latex and synthetic glove configurations, participants found only 8% and 12% of the
holes at an average of 47 seconds and 67 seconds, respectively. Indicator gloves were highly
rated for comfort and ease of use.
Conclusions: Double gloving with an indicator system provides the best protection and allows
the timeliest identification of perforations. Participants failed to identify most of the
holes in the non-indicator gloves.
