Effects of Frequent Glove Change on Outcomes of Orthopaedic Surgical Procedures - A Multicenter Study on Surgical Gloves
RC01-RC04
Correspondence
Dr. Nishit Palo,
4a, Nilgiri-3, Sector-34, Noida-201307, Uttar Pradesh, India.
E-mail: nishit_palo@yahoo.com
Introduction: Intact surgical gloves are a barrier to microorganisms migration between surgical team members and the patient. The surgical gloves are changed at various junctures but the effects of changing gloves during surgical procedures on various surgical parameters or clinical outcomes are not established.
Aim: To determine rationale of glove change during orthopaedic procedures, differences amongst surgical parameters with and without changing the surgical gloves and whether frequent glove change affected surgical parameters or clinical outcomes.
Materials and Methods: A prospective multicenter study conducted at three centers from January 2014 to January 2016. A 250 patients were divided into 2 groups (n=125 each) in Group 1, surgical team operated with regular changing of gloves. In Group 2, only 1 set of double gloves were worn throughout the procedure. Surgical parameters or clinical outcomes were assessed for both the groups. Statistical analyses included the median, mode, range, Interquartile Range (IQR) and sample standard deviation (s) and independent-samples t-test. Bacterial counts were expressed as median with (IQR).
Results: Surgical Timing Difference was 10 (S.D.- 4.2) minutes more in Group-1 (<0.05), Surgical Cost was higher in Group-1 by Rs.150-450 (<0.05). Outer glove micro-perforation rate was 5.85% and 8.15% in group-1 and 2 respectively with no inner glove perforation or Surgical Site Infections. Outer glove micro perforations were proportional to duration of surgery; operations lasting 120-210 and 61-120 minutes had 66.6% and 37.2% micro perforation rates respectively (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Under standard operating conditions, procedures performed without glove change are shorter and cost effective than procedures performed with regular glove change with similar surgical and functional results. Judicious use of surgical gloves is a patient and environment friendly option, thereby reducing the hospital’s biomedical waste load.