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Association Between the Frequency of Glove Change and the Risk of Blood and Body Fluid Exposure in Gastrointestinal Surgery

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Abstract

Background

Surgical gloves are used to prevent the transmission of microorganisms from the surgeon’s hands to the patient and vice versa. Little is known on the optimal frequency of glove changing. Therefore, we aimed to examine the optimal frequency of glove change during surgery by assessing the glove perforation rate in gastrointestinal surgery.

Methods

In this observational prospective cohort study, we investigated the incidence of perforation of 5,267 gloves during gastrointestinal surgeries.

Results

The overall glove perforation rate was 10.1%. There was no significant difference between single gloving (10.2%) and double gloving (10.0%; p = 0.8491). However, the perforation rate of the inner glove (5.7%) was found to be significantly lower than that of the outer glove (11.6%) (p < 0.0001). A significant difference in perforation rate was observed after wearing inner gloves for 240 min (< 240 min, 4.4%; ≤ 240 min, 7.2%; p = 0.0314), and outer gloves for 60 min (< 60 min, 7.1%; ≤ 60 min, 12.6%; p < 0.0001). We found cumulative perforation rate to rapidly increase until the wear time was 90 min.

Conclusion

The inner gloves and outer gloves have a higher perforation rate as the wear time increased. To reduce the risk of intraoperative blood and fluid exposure and prevent healthcare-associated infection, gloves should be changed for approximately every 60–90 min for outer gloves and approximately every 240 min for inner gloves.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for the English language editing. The data, analytical methods, and study materials of this study are not available publicly.

Funding

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Risk Management and Infection Control, National Defense Medical College, 3-2, Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan

    Minako Kobayashi, Hironori Tsujimoto & Risa Takahata

  2. Department of Surgery, National Defense Medical College, 3-2, Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan

    Takahiro Einama, Koichi Okamoto, Yoshiki Kajiwara, Eiji Shinto, Yoji Kishi, Kazuo Hase & Hideki Ueno

Authors
  1. Minako Kobayashi
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  2. Hironori Tsujimoto
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  3. Risa Takahata
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  4. Takahiro Einama
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  5. Koichi Okamoto
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  6. Yoshiki Kajiwara
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  7. Eiji Shinto
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  8. Yoji Kishi
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  9. Kazuo Hase
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  10. Hideki Ueno
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Minako Kobayashi.

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Conflict of interests

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical consideration

This study was approved by the National Defense Medical College Hospital Ethics Committee (approval number: 4042). Moreover, all participants provided verbal consent to participate after the nature of the study was explained to them in detail.

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Kobayashi, M., Tsujimoto, H., Takahata, R. et al. Association Between the Frequency of Glove Change and the Risk of Blood and Body Fluid Exposure in Gastrointestinal Surgery. World J Surg 44, 3695–3701 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-020-05681-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-020-05681-1

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