Nitrile versus latex for glove juice sampling

Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the utility of nitrile gloves as a replacement for latex surgical gloves in recovering bacteria from the hands. Two types of nitrile gloves were compared to latex gloves using the parallel streak method. Streaksof Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus were made on tryptic soy agar plates, and the zones of inhibition weremeasured around pieces of glove material placed on the plates. Latex gloves produced a mean zone of inhibition of0.28 mm, compared to 0.002 mm for nitrile gloves (p,.001). While the parallel streak method is not intended as aquantitative estimate of antimicrobial properties, these results suggest that nitrile may be a viable alternative to latex inglove juice sampling methods, since nitrile avoids the risk of latex exposure.