The traditional purpose of surgical gloves is to prevent transmission
of pathogens (usually bacterial) from surgeon to patient. Yet the hand
is also the most common site of injury and blood contamination among
operating room personnel. Thus, gloves also can protect against transm
ission of pathogens from patient to surgeon. This article focuses on t
he value of gloves for hand protection. The current data on such prote
ction derive exclusively from studies that use glove leak and contamin
ation as outcome measures. There are no data that measure protection i
n terms of actual disease transmission.