A PROSPECTIVE, CONTROLLED-STUDY SHOWING THAT RUBBER GLOVES ARE THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO LATEX AEROALLERGEN LEVELS IN THE OPERATING-ROOM

Background: Although protocols have been published for reducing natura l rubber later exposure in medical environments, there are no objectiv e data documenting their effectiveness. Objective: We prospectively st udied the impact of a single intervention, substitution of low-allerge n-containing latex gloves for high-allergen-containing Inter gloves, o n Inter aeroallergen levels in a single operating room (OR). Methods: We sampled OR air on 52 consecutive days, including 33 surgery days an d 19 nonsurgery days. On each surgery day all personnel wore either hi gh-allergen gloves (n = 18 days) or low-allergen gloves (n = 15 days). Latex aeroallergen levels (in nanograms per cubic meter) and extracta ble latex glove allergen contents (in allergen units per milliliter) w ere measured by inhibition immunoassays. An on-site study monitor reco rded the number of gloves used, the total time spent by all patients i n the OR each day (OR time), and the total time of all procedures for each day (operating procedure time). Results: Latex aeroallergen level s during low-allergen glove rise days (mean, 1.1 ng/m(3) median, 0.9 n g/m(3); range, 0.1 to 3.5 ng/m(3)) were significantly lower than on hi gh-allergen glove use days (mean, 13.7 ng/m(3); median, 77 ng/m(3); ra nge, 2.2 to 56.4 ng/m(3)) (p < 0.001) but not significantly different from that on nonsurgery days (mean, 0.6 median median, 0.3 ng/m(3) ran ge, 0.1 to 3.6 ng/m(3)). Latex aeroallergen levels were strongly corre lated with the total number of gloves used on designated high-allergen glove days (r = 0.66, p = 0.003). There was no appreciable day-to-day carryover of latex aeroallergen. Conclusions: The substitution of low -allergen-containing latex gloves for high-allergen-containing latex g loves can reduce levels of latex aeroallergen by more than 10-fold in an OR environment.