THE USE OF DOUBLE LATEX GLOVES DURING HIP FRACTURE OPERATIONS

A prospective study was undertaken to determine the perforation rate o f surgical gloves when double-gloving techniques were employed in 120 hip fracture operations. One or more perforations occurred in 30 opera tions (25%). In 10 operations (8.3%), perforations of both the outer a nd inner gloves occurred at corresponding sites. The surgeons were abl e to recognize the perforations during the surgery on five occasions o nly. Of the 64 perforations identified, 41 (64%) occurred in the left (nondominant) hands, and 42 (65.6%) occurred at the tips of thumbs and index fingers. Nearly half of the perforations (46.9%) occurred at th e thumb and index finger of left (nondominant) hands. To reduce the pe rforation rate, further protection of the thumb and index finger of th e nondominant hand of surgeons is therefore required.