LATEX ALLERGY PRECAUTIONS - A RESEARCH-BASED PROTOCOL

Recently, a number of case reports in the literature have heightened t he awareness of health care professionals to the prevalence and seriou sness of allergies to natural rubber latex. Reports of serious anaphyl actic reactions in patients with no known history of the allergy are p articularly alarming. The Iowa Model for improving quality through res earch utilization provided a framework to develop a protocol for scree ning patients and caring for those identified as high risk for a syste mic reaction to latex. An overview of this research-based practice pro tocol and the process used are presented.