Bacterial contamination of gloves worn by small animal surgeons in a veterinary teaching hospital

This prospective study investigated bacterial contamination of surgical gloves during small animal surgical procedures and factors associated with glove contamination. The outer surface of surgical gloves was sampled and cultured after completion of surgical procedures. Bacterial presence and numbers were recorded. Of 78 gloves sampled from 39 surgical procedures, bacterial contamination was noted in 16/78 (21%) gloves from 12/39 (31%) procedures. There was no difference in contamination of left or right hand glove 7/39 (18%) versus 9/39 (23%)], respectively (P = 0.78). There was no impact of glove type of left hand (P = 0.41), right hand (P = 0.44) or either hand (P = 0.26) contamination, or of surgical time (P = 0.71), dominant hand (P > 0.13), surgery type (orthopedic versus soft tissue versus neurological) (P > 0.42) or surgical wound classification (P > 0.11) on the incidence of contamination.