Exploring the Benefits of Double Gloving During Surgery DENISE KORNIEWICZ, PhD, RN, FAAN; MAHER EL-MASRI, PhD, RN ABSTRACT Breaches in the glove barrier pose a risk for transmission of bloodborne pathogens during surgical procedures. Double gloving or double gloving with an indicator glove system may provide added protection. For this 24-month study, we used a comparative design to examine the effect of double gloving with inner indicator gloves on the durability of inner gloves and the detection of glove tears or perfo- rations during surgery. The frequency of seeing blood on the hand after surgery was greater with single gloving than with double gloving, and the frequency of changing gloves during surgery was significantly higher among those who double gloved with an indicator glove system versus double gloving alone. The majority of health care providers in our study expressed favorable views about double gloving. AORN J 95 (March 2012) 328-336. © AORN, Inc, 2012. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2011.04.027 Key words: double gloving, surgical gloves, health care-associated infections, patient safety. T he risk of exposure to bloodborne patho- gens continues to be a major concern among health care providers who work in the OR, 1,2 and the transfer of pathogens from sur- gical personnel to patients has been reported to increase the risk of bloodborne infections in pa- tients. 3,4 Given the serious health 5 and cost 6 implications related to the consequences of bloodborne infections, both patients and health care providers need to be protected from the risk of these infections. Such protection is par- ticularly important considering that health care providers may contract bloodborne infections without ever being diagnosed. 7 Official statis- tics suggest that about 1% of Americans carry at least one type of bloodborne infection, 1 indi- cating that the threat of such infections to health care providers is real. One source of occupational bloodborne infec- tion in the OR originates from needle-stick or sharp instrument injuries. Breaches in the glove barrier have long been recognized as a risk for exposure to bloodborne pathogens during surgi- cal procedures. In fact, Panlilio et al 8 reported that 30% of blood contamination incidents dur- ing surgery occur on the hands of surgical team members. Further, Quebbeman et al 9 reported that contamination of a health care provider with blood as a result of a needle stick or other injury occurred in 50% of 234 surgical observa- tions. Gerberding et al 10 reported that surgical procedures lasting longer than three hours tend to decrease the durability of the glove as a pro- tective barrier, thus increasing the risk of blood exposure among perioperative health care providers. doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2011.04.027 328 AORN Journal ● March 2012 Vol 95 No 3 © AORN, Inc, 2012