Evolution of the surgical glove.

r o he early story of the use of gloves by surgeons and obstericians has been well documented by Randers-Pehrson nd by Miller. Walbaum, in 1758, used the cecum of the heep as a partial hand covering in his obstetric practice, nd gloves made successively of cotton, silk, leather, and inally rubber were used in the 19 century. Rubber beoming the material of choice after Charles Goodyear deeloped the vulcanization process to stabilize it in 1844. nitially, gloves were used to protect the surgeons’ hands rom injury during operations and autopsies. It was the ntroduction of the antiseptic technique of operating by oseph Lister in 1867 that initiated a new hazard for the urgeon. This was the high incidence of skin sensitivity to he antiseptic agents used at that time, at first carbolic, then variety of chemicals, which included picric acid, iodine, nd perchloride of mercury. Interestingly, introduction and then widespread use of urgical gloves was to protect the hands of the surgeon and he theater staff from antiseptic solutions rather than to rotect the patient from infection. Certainly, William Halsted of Baltimore was one of the ioneers of the use of rubber gloves, soon after the Johns opkins Hospital was opened in 1889, and although he id not publicize this advance, his trainees no doubt spread he idea. Johann Mikulicz of Breslau observed Halsted at ork and helped to popularize the use of gloves in ermany. The first publication on the use of boiled sterilized ruber gloves in surgery appears to have been by Werner von anteuffel, Professor of Surgery at Tartu, Estonia, in 897. “To wear boiled gloves is to operate with boiled ands,” he said. Initially, rubber gloves were sterilized by boiling and hen put on wet over the wet scrubbed hands. With the ntroduction of dry heat sterilization it was necessary to use dusting powder to facilitate the donning of the gloves. he first powders to be used were lycopodium (the spores f club moss) or talcum powder, which is a combination of agnesium silicate (chemically pure talc) and calcium