Despite prior recommendations for removal, latex gloves remain prevalent in dental clinical practice because of puncture resistance, durability, and user satisfaction.[1] However, latex gloves can impair polymerization of vinyl polysiloxane impression material (VPS) thus, resulting in inaccurate and distorted impressions, which may require the clinician to repeat the impression procedure leadin...

OBJECTIVES The present study describes latex sensitisation and allergy prevalence and associated factors among healthcare workers using hypoallergenic latex gloves at King Edward VIII Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING A tertiary hospital in eThekwini municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. PARTICIPANTS 600 healthcare workers were randomly se...

BACKGROUND The invasive nature of surgery, with its increased exposure to blood, means that during surgery there is a high risk of transfer of pathogens. Pathogens can be transferred through contact between surgical patients and the surgical team, resulting in post-operative or blood borne infections in patients or blood borne infections in the surgical team. Both patients and the surgical team...

This study was conducted to 1) evaluate the personal selection and use of protective gloves against bloodborne pathogens and management of glove selection in the workplace, 2) survey the experience with occupational dermatitis and other allergic symptoms, 3) explore the relationships between occupational dermatitis experience and glove use, and 4) determine the impact of glove selection upon oc...

Dear Editor, Phlebotomists wear gloves for their own protection and for patient safety; they wash hands (or apply alcohol disinfectants when pressed for time) and change gloves between patients [13]. Blood collection is delayed when gloves are changed after washing and drying hands. Moreover, latex glove disposal might increase environmental pollution. Cleansing gloved hands to prolong the use ...

AIMS The aim of this study is to investigate whether protection with rubber or plastic gloves during post-mortem explantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) offers enough protection for the explanting operator during a worst-case scenario (i.e. ICD shock). METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated the insulating properties of rubber and plastic gloves (double layer) within the f...

Five young women, all of whom had anaphylactic responses in operating units, are described. Three of them worked in a hospital three showed immediate hypersensitivity to fruit and all had known urticaria to latex. Anaphylaxis appeared progressively 15 to 30 minutes after injection of anaesthetic drugs. Skin tests with these drugs were negative. Skin prick tests through gloves and with four diff...

Allergic contact dermatitis developed on the hands and/or face of two patients after exposure to latex examination gloves. Both patients were patch test negative to the usual rubber allergens, but both had a positive patch test reaction to 4,4'-thiobis(6-tert-butyl-m-cresol) (Lowinox 44S36). Patient 2 was also patch test positive to butylhydroxyanisole. The patients were tested with other glove...

The test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for assessment of the barrier quality of medical exam gloves includes visual inspection and a water leak test. Neither method tests directly the ability of gloves to prevent penetration by microorganisms. Methods that use microorganisms (viruses and bacteria) to test gloves have been developed but require classical culturing of the orga...