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Evaluation of the efficacy of antibacterial medical gloves in the ICU setting.
J Hosp Infect. 2015 Apr 22;
Authors: Kahar Bador M, Rai V, Yusof MY, Kwong WK, Assadian O
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Inappropriate use of medical gloves may support microbial transmission. New strategies could increase the safety of medical gloves without the risk of patient and surface contamination.
AIM: To compare the efficacy of synthetic antibacterial nitrile medical gloves coated with polyhexamethylen-biguanid hydrochloride (PHMB) on the external surface with identical non-antibacterial medical gloves in reducing glove contamination after common patient care measures in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting.
METHODS: ICU staff wore either standard or antibacterial gloves during patient care activities. The number of bacteria on gloves was measured semi-quantitatively immediately after the performance of four clinical activities.
FINDINGS: There was a significant difference in mean bacterial growth [colony-forming units (cfu)] between control gloves and antibacterial gloves {60 [standard deviation (SD) 23] vs 16 (SD 23) cfu/glove imprint, P < 0.001}. In three of the four clinical activities (intravenous fluid handling, oral toilet and physiotherapy), the antibacterial gloves had significantly less bacterial contamination compared with the control gloves (P = 0.011 and <0.001, respectively). Although antibacterial gloves showed lower bacterial contamination after changing linen compared with control gloves, the difference was not significant (P = 0.311).
CONCLUSION: This study showed that use of antibacterial medical gloves significantly reduced bacterial contamination after typical patient care activities in 57% of the investigated clinical activities (P < 0.01). The use of antibacterial medical gloves may support reduction of cross-contamination in the ICU setting.
PMID: 25982193 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]