Medical glove

Latex

Neoprene

A blue nitrile medical glove

Medical gloves are medical safety accessories that ensure sanitary hospital conditions by limiting patients' exposure to infectious matter. They also serve to protect health professionals from disease through contact with bodily fluids.

Medical gloves are traditionally made of latex and powdered with cornstarch to lubricate the gloves, making them easier to don.^[1] Cornstarch replaced Lycopodium powder and/or talc but since cornstarch can also impede healing if it gets into tissues (as during surgery), non-powdered gloves are being used more often during surgery and other sensitive procedures. Special manufacturing processes are used to compensate for the lack of powder.

There are two main types of gloves: exam, and surgical. Surgical gloves have more precise sizing (numbered sizing, generally from size 5.5 to size 9), and are made to higher specifications.^[2]

Latex allergy and alternative materials

Due to the increasing rate of latex allergy among health professionals as well as in the general population, there has been an increasing move to gloves made of non-latex materials such as vinyl or nitrile rubber; Chemical processes may also be employed to reduce the amount of antigenic protein in Hevea latex, resulting in alternative Hevea-based materials such Vytex Natural Rubber Latex. However, these gloves have not yet replaced latex gloves in surgical procedures, as gloves made of alternate materials generally do not fully match the fine control or greater sensitivity to touch available with latex surgical gloves. High-grade non-latex gloves such as nitrile gloves also cost twice as much, or more than the price of their latex counterparts, a fact that has often prevented switching to these alternate materials in cost-sensitive environments, such as many hospitals.^[3]

Powder-free medical gloves are also used in medical cleanroom environments, where the need for cleanliness is often similar to that in a sensitive medical environment.^{[citation needed]} Similar but specially tested gloves are used in electronics cleanrooms.^{[citation needed]}

History

In 1894, sterilized rubber gloves were used in hospitals for the first time. They were introduced because of Joseph Lister's germ theory.

The first disposable medical gloves were manufactured in 1964 by Ansell, which was founded in Melbourne in 1905 by Eric Ansell.^{[4][dubious – discuss]}

References

1. ^ Glove manufacturing
2. ^ FDA: Personal Protective Equipment: Medical Gloves
3. ^ Advantages and Disadvantages of Non-latex Surgical Gloves^{[broken citation]}
4. ^ 100 Years of Australian Innovation - latex gloves

External links

• An article discussing nitrile vs. latex for gloves. CleanRooms. PennWell Corporation.

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