Introduction: Wearing sterile Latex gloves provide an essential protection to both surgeon as well as the patient and thus prevent disease transmission from surgeon to patient and vice versa. The risk of transmission of pathogens such as hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from infected patients to the operating surgeon as well as from surgeon to patient has lead to attention on the reliability of intact surgical gloves in preventing contact with the patient’s body fluids. Material and Method: A prospective study was conducted at Government Medical College Jammu with the objective to assess the incidence of glove perforations in routine as well as emergency surgery after wearing double gloves in the surgery. The perforation was assessed by leak test performed on the gloves collected from whole of the surgical team. Result: Gloves of 96 routine and emergency operations (56 open surgeries, 40 laparoscopic surgeries) were studied. In all; 270 gloves were examined. 24 out of the 270 gloves (8.8%) had one or more perforations. Our study documents gloves of principle surgeon, during open surgery of prolonged duration had higher incidence of perforation. The water leak test detected all the perforated gloves. Conclusion: In view of the increasing importance of safety at work, it is recommended to use double gloves, in both emergency and routine surgery as it is safe and may reduce transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV. The other glove will protect the Surgeon from contact with body secretion of patients despite one of the two gloves being perforated.
