Chlorhexidine-coated surgical gloves influence the bacterial flora of hands over a period of 3 hours.

Background: The risk of SSI increases in the presence of foreign materials and may be caused by organisms with low pathogenicity, such as skin flora derived from hands of surgical team members in the event of a glove breach. Previously, we were able to demonstrate that a novel antimicrobial surgical glove coated chlorhexidine-digluconate as the active ingredient on its inner surface was able to suppress surgeons' hand flora during operative procedures by a magnitude of 1.7 log Methods: The experimental procedure followed the method for assessment of the 3-h effects of a surgical hand rub's efficacy to reduce the release of hand flora as described in the European Norm EN 12791. Healthy volunteers tested either an antimicrobial surgical glove or non-antimicrobial surgical latex gloves in a standardized laboratory-based experiment over a wear time of 3 h. Results: Wearing antimicrobial surgical glove after a surgical hand rub with 60% ( Conclusion: It was demonstrated that wear of an antibacterial surgical glove coated with chlorhexidine-digluconate is able to suppress resident hand flora significantly over a period of 3-h.