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Hand hygiene01:23

Hand hygiene

Asepsis is the practice of preventing or breaking the chain of infection. The nurse employs aseptic techniques to prevent the spread of microorganisms and reduce the risk of diseases. Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of aseptic techniques and is classified into medical and surgical asepsis. Medical asepsis includes hand hygiene and the use of gloves. Surgical asepsis, or the sterile technique, refers to practices that render and keep objects and areas free of microorganisms.
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Microbial Control and Monitoring Strategies for Cleanroom Environments and Cellular Therapies
09:30

Microbial Control and Monitoring Strategies for Cleanroom Environments and Cellular Therapies

Published on: March 17, 2023

Sterile gloves: do they make a difference?

Jennifer Creamer1, Kurt Davis, William Rice

  • 1Department of Surgery, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, TX, USA. jennifer.creamer1@us.army.mil

American Journal of Surgery
|December 13, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Clean gloves harbor more bacteria than sterile gloves, but the difference is not clinically significant for causing wound infections. This study compared bacterial contamination on different glove types in an outpatient setting.

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Area of Science:

  • Infection Control
  • Clinical Microbiology
  • Healthcare Practices

Background:

  • Wound infections typically require >10^5 organisms/mL.
  • Previous research established thresholds for infection causation.
  • The study investigated bacterial contamination on gloves in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare bacterial colony-forming units (CFUs) on sterile versus clean gloves.
  • To assess the clinical relevance of bacterial contamination on gloves in an outpatient setting.

Main Methods:

  • Volunteers self-donned clean gloves; palmar surfaces were swabbed.
  • Cultures were obtained from self-donned sterile gloves.
  • Cultures were also obtained from technician-assisted sterile gloves.

Main Results:

  • Clean gloves showed a mean of 14.08 ± 15.45 CFUs/mL.
  • Self-donned sterile gloves had a mean of 1.28 ± 4.28 CFUs/mL.
  • Technician-assisted sterile gloves had 1 positive result with 8 CFUs/mL.

Conclusions:

  • A statistically significant difference in bacterial load exists between clean and sterile gloves (P < .001).
  • The bacterial contamination on clean gloves was found to be clinically irrelevant for causing infection.
  • Findings suggest that while sterile gloves have lower bacterial counts, clean gloves may not pose a significant infection risk in this context.