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It is unlikely that anyone has ever seen a medical worker without disposable medical gloves. Indeed, for any employee in this industry, this item is a kind of barrier to various kinds of contact diseases and all kinds of infections. In addition, such products contribute to the highest level of hygiene during diagnostic procedures, surgical operations or therapeutic actions. For this purpose, only sterile disposable gloves are used. For the reception of patients and other similar actions, a non-sterile version of this item is most often used.
What are medical gloves? What are they made of and how to properly use their different types? The answers to these and other questions can be found in the following article.
The story of
Medical gloves are disposable products that contribute to the safety of both the patient and staff during medical events. Such an item serves as a good protection for employees of medical institutions in contact with body fluids of a sick person, and also guarantees disinfection and antiseptics in a clinic, preventing possible exposure to harmful substances on patients.
Disposable gloves are used not only for medical purposes. In everyday life, they are often used to protect against harmful and toxic substances, such as cement, household chemicals, paint, and others. Another large area of application of this product is the food industry. They are indispensable in cafes, restaurants and other places of public catering and trade, where exceptional sterility is a prerequisite.
Disposable gloves were created by Ansell in 1964 in Melbourne. However, back in 1847, a surgeon from Hungary drew attention to the fact that almost all postoperative infectious processes occur due to bacteria that got into an open wound from the hands of medical personnel or untreated instruments. It was I.F. Semmelweis who noticed that often the infection was brought by personnel from the infectious diseases department, so he forced doctors and nurses to disinfect their hands with a chlorine solution before carrying out procedures with pregnant women or women in childbirth. As a result, mortality among newborns and women has decreased from eighteen percent to two percent.
And already medical gloves for these purposes began to be used in the Johns Hopkins hospital.
Types and main characteristics of medical gloves
Standard medical gloves are made of latex powdered with cornstarch on the inside, which greatly facilitates the donning process. Previously, instead of starch, talc or lycopodium powder was used. But it turned out that even safer corn starch can cause tissue infection when it gets into the wound during surgical operations. Therefore, during surgery and other most sensitive actions, medical devices are now used without any powder at all. Moreover, specialized technological processes are used to manufacture such a product.
All disposable gloves can be divided into two main types:
- surgical, which are developed according to the highest specification and are divided into certain sizes;
- diagnostic or viewing.
The material from which disposable gloves are made is latex, which is an emulsion of polymer particles in a water base. The rubber from which latex is obtained can be both natural and synthetic. Depending on this, latex is natural, as well as polyisoprene, nitrile, polychloroprene and polyvinyl chloride or just vinyl.
Polyisoprene products are considered to be the closest in structure to natural latex, since natural latex is mostly composed of polyisoprene particles. These gloves are very soft, fit the hand well and stretch remarkably. However, such a product often causes allergic reactions, as it contains a large amount of proteins. Also, gloves made of natural latex do not resist the effects of esters, alcohols and oily liquids.
Nitrile gloves are highly resistant to alcohols, aldehydes, acids and phenols. This quality makes them indispensable in laboratory conditions, where laboratory assistants have to work with an aggressive environment, as well as when cleaning rooms. In addition, products made of synthetic latex do not cause allergies, but when worn for a long time, they contribute to the emergence and development of contact dermatitis. The main disadvantage of nitrile gloves is their low elasticity, which does not allow their wide use in surgery. However, they are often used in such areas of medicine as dentistry, pharmacology and cosmetology. This is a high quality product, sufficiently durable, resistant to aggressive environments and elastic.
Vinyl gloves are made from harmful and fragile polyvinyl chloride. They are much cheaper than their analogues, but have a high permeability for various kinds of microorganisms and proteins. This disadvantage does not allow the use of this type of product even for examining patients.
The polyisoprene gloves as well as the polychloroprene product are quite expensive. That is why they are most often used for surgical purposes. The use of such gloves during surgical operations will provide the best protection for both medical workers and patients.
Due to the fact that natural latex very often provokes the occurrence of allergic reactions, many medical institutions are switching to a synthetic analogue: nitrile rubber or vinyl. However, in surgical practice there is still no complete replacement for natural latex gloves, which provide high sensitivity and complete freedom. In addition, high-quality synthetic latex substitutes are quite expensive, which also complicates the transition to their use.
One of the important characteristics of disposable medical gloves is powderedness. But the fact is that the powder that is used to make them has unfavorable properties. It helps to attract and retain various bacteria and microorganisms, which serves as a source of all kinds of infections. Also, the powder provokes the occurrence of an allergy to latex. Studies have been conducted that have shown that the use of powder has led to many postoperative complications, the occurrence of infectious processes within the medical institution and the development of allergic reactions, both among the hospital staff and its patients. However, powdered gloves are very good for short procedures, lasting up to ten minutes. Under such conditions, the powder has time to completely dissolve in sweat, which means it has a minimal effect on the skin of the hands.
Initially, the powder was used solely for the purposes of the production process – so that the walls of the product do not stick together after removing it from the mold. To date, in order to prevent sticking of the walls after removing the gloves from the mold, surface modification is used in modern production.
Another important characteristic for disposable gloves is the roller, which serves to fix the product on the wrist. It is necessary to ensure that the roller is twisted inside the glove. Otherwise, the space between it and the surface of the product will be a source of infection. In products without a roller, its function should be performed by a reinforced cuff that fits snugly around the wrist.
Other gloves simply will not stay on the hand, which does not allow their use for medical purposes.
Also in disposable gloves, it is important to pay attention to surface texture, which allows you to firmly hold medical instruments in your hands. There are textured and micro-rough surfaces of latex products. The second option practically does not change the structure of the glove, making the surface closer to smooth than textured.
Additional properties of medical gloves
Additional properties of medical disposable gloves include:
- the anatomical shape of the product;
- glove sterility;
- surface modification.
The anatomical shape is more applicable to surgical gloves. It reduces hand fatigue during prolonged use. Such gloves are products with a separate thumb, which accordingly allows you to put them on the corresponding hand. Such items are much more expensive to manufacture and are made in certain sizes, in the range of digital values from 5,5 to 9. There is also an improved anatomical shape, in which the fingers are made in a palmar-curved shape. Such products reduce the load not only on the thumb, and for the whole hand.
The sterility of latex products is achieved by sterilization, which is carried out by chemical, thermal, filtration or radiation methods. In fact, sterilization is the neutralization of all microorganisms, bacteria, prion proteins, fungi and spores from the surface of the product. Typically, surgical gloves are sterilized chemically or by gamma irradiation during manufacture. Such sterilization methods are absolutely safe for the end user, but extremely destructive for harmful microorganisms. In the conditions of a medical institution, non-sterile gloves are thermally sterilized. Usually, in order to confirm sufficient sterilization, a special color indicator is applied to the box with the product, which, when sufficiently exposed to ethylene oxide or gamma radiation, changes its color, which is a confirmation of sterility.
Surface modification is used to achieve the smoothness of the product. Modification of both internal, and external surface of gloves is applied. The inner one makes it easier to put on the glove even on wet hands, and the outer one provides convenient work with medical instruments, preventing the contact surfaces of the fingers from sticking together.
Surface modification is carried out by two methods: polymer treatment or chlorination. Chlorination is the treatment of a product with perchloric acid, as a result of which a smooth film forms on its surface. Also in this case, there is a partial removal of water, which gives a pleasant tactile sensation to the glove. Online chlorination is carried out at industrial enterprises – this is exactly the process that completely replaced the dusting of gloves in production. In domestic conditions, chlorination is achieved by prolonged soaking of products in a solution of perchloric acid.
However, you should be aware that prolonged uncontrolled chlorination leads to damage to the product: the appearance of a yellow color, the loss of the protective properties of latex – it becomes quite susceptible to the penetration of various microorganisms and proteins through it. In addition, chlorine remaining on the glove after poor-quality processing has a negative effect on both patients and medical staff.
The second method of surface modification is its treatment with polymers. The main tasks of the polymer coating of the product are to prevent its sticking, as well as to improve donning. Most often, polymers such as silicone or polyurethane are used for surface treatment in these cases. In the past, nitrile and hydrogel coatings were considered the most popular.
Conclusions
Medical gloves are an indispensable tool in the medical industry, providing reliable protection for patients and healthcare workers during various diagnostic procedures, as well as during surgery. There are various types of such products, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. The characteristics of such varieties should be guided when choosing latex gloves. It should be remembered that for surgical operations it is necessary to use high-quality sterile disposable gloves, while for ordinary, less sensitive procedures, ordinary non-sterile products are suitable.