5 Reasons You Should Double-Glove During Surgery

Although double-gloving during surgery or invasive procedures is strongly encouraged by professional organizations like the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), fewer than half of surgical staff interviewed in a recent poll conducted by Outpatient Surgery Magazine said they follow the practice.

Many surgical team members who fail to double glove say they feel restrained and uncomfortable. Because of the obvious risks associated with having just one layer of protection during surgical procedures, Outpatient Surgery takes a look at the  reasons why staff fail to double-glove.

In her article Busting 5 Double-Gloving Myths, author Sharon Van Wicklin reveals the top five myths that keep surgical staff from protecting themselves against exposure to blood and other bodily fluids and other potentially infectious materials.

• Myth 1: Glove tears and perforations are rare. According to the article, not only do glove perforations happen, they go undetected two-thirds of the time when only a single pair of gloves is worn.
• Myth 2: You don’t have to change your gloves during a case. AORN recommend that you inspect your gloves immediately after putting them on and several times throughout their use. They also recommend that scrub members change their gloves every 90 to 150 minutes, regardless of their condition.
• Myth 3: It is as easy to detect perforations in single gloves as with double gloves. This is simply not true. By wearing dark colored gloves under light colored ones, it is much easy to notice perforations because moisture from the surgical field will seep through the perforation and reveal the underlying glove color. According to Van Wicklin, “when single gloves were worn, the detection rate of a perforation was 36.84%. When a double glove perforation indication system was worn, the detection rate for a perforation was 86.52%.”
• Myth 4: Needle sticks and other punctures are uncommon events. Not so. Van Wicklin notes that nearly 400,000 hospital healthcare workers sustain a percutaneous injury every year, and most of these occur in the perioperative setting. Double-gloving offers significant protection against these injuries.
• Myth 5: Double-glove causes a dangerous decrease in tactile sensitivity. While it is true that tactile sensitivity is compromised, this does not need to make for a dangerous situation. In cases where there is a clinical need for high tactile sensitivity, AORN recommends using only a single pair of gloves but exercising extreme caution throughout the procedure.

You can learn more about each of these myths by reading the full article here.