The incidence of undiagnosed punctures in non-sterile gloves

This study investigates the incidence of undiagnosed punctures in five types of single and multiple patient use gloves worn by a group of practitioners (n = 6) in general and hospital practice, and provides data on the incidence of undiagnosed punctures in gloves worn on operative and passive hands. Gloves considered to be intact when discarded (n = 510, 85%) were examined for undiagnosed punctures by water inflation. The incidence of undiagnosed punctures varied considerably with glove type (range 3-49%) and among the practitioners (range 9-29%), and some gloves, notably the vinyl type investigated, appeared to be more prone to puncture than the other types of glove. More than 60% of the undiagnosed punctures were in the thumbs and second fingers of the gloves. The incidence of undiagnosed punctures in gloves from operative hands was only slightly greater than that for gloves from passive hands. The gloves intended for multiple patient use were found to have the lowest incidence of undiagnosed punctures. However, the single patient use gloves were typically misused, in that they were worn during the treatment of more than one patient.