Surgical glove use may be associated with a decrease in tactile sensitivity, with thicker gloves or double-gloving techniques further altering sensation. This study evaluates digital tactile sensitivity by use of a Grating Orientation Task (GOT) with multiple sterile gloving techniques (no gloves, single standard gloving, double standard gloving, orthopedic gloves, and micro-thickness gloves).
Each participant performed the GOT at increasing grating widths until correctly noting orientation in ≥8 of 10 trials with multiple glove types or double-gloving technique. Glove order was randomly assigned and participants were blinded to the orientation and dome size.
All gloves except micro-thickness gloves showed increased threshold sensitivity values (i.e. worse fingertip sensitivity) when compared to control (micro:control,
Standard latex gloves decreased fingertip sensitivity when evaluated with the GOT. Double-layer and orthopedic latex gloves do not decrease sensitivity when compared with single-layer gloving. Micro-thickness gloves may provide similar tactile sensitivity to no surgical glove.