A new review by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) summarises the evidence for different types of glove in surgical settings.
The review concludes that latex gloves may be more resistant to punctures than non-latex gloves in the surgical setting. Vinyl gloves are permeable to chemotherapy and are not suitable for use when exposure to cytotoxic agents is possible.
The reviewers did not find any evidence found about the allergy potential, cost-effectiveness, effectiveness to prevent pathogen transmission, or recommended duration of use of latex versus non-latex gloves.
- “Disposable gloves for use in healthcare settings: a review of the clinical effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness, and guidelines” is indexed in the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) Health Technology Assessments (HTA) database and is available full text from the CADTH website.