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Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand

Background. “Lead hands” are frequently used to maintain hand and finger position in hand surgery. The malleability and strength of lead make it ideal for this purpose. The aim of this study was to determine the amount of lead transferred to a surgeon's glove during handling of a lead hand. Met...

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Autores principales: Mehra, A., Deakin, D. E., Khan, A., Sheehan, T. M. T., Nightingale, P., Deshmukh, S. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: International Scholarly Research Network 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4063133/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24977071
http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2011/946370
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author Mehra, A.
Deakin, D. E.
Khan, A.
Sheehan, T. M. T.
Nightingale, P.
Deshmukh, S. C.
author_facet Mehra, A.
Deakin, D. E.
Khan, A.
Sheehan, T. M. T.
Nightingale, P.
Deshmukh, S. C.
author_sort Mehra, A.
collection PubMed
description Background. “Lead hands” are frequently used to maintain hand and finger position in hand surgery. The malleability and strength of lead make it ideal for this purpose. The aim of this study was to determine the amount of lead transferred to a surgeon's glove during handling of a lead hand. Method. Sterile surgical gloves were wiped over the surface of a lead hand. The number of wipes was varied, the gloves were then sent to a trace elements laboratory, and the lead content transferred to each glove was determined. Results. The amount of lead transferred to each glove increased with increasing exposure to the lead hand. After twenty wipes, up to 2 mg of lead was transferred to the surgeon's glove. Covering the lead hand with a sterile drape markedly reduced the lead transferred to the surgeon's glove. Conclusion. Significant amount of lead is transferred on to the gloves after handling a lead hand. This risks wound contamination and a foreign body reaction. Covering the lead hand with a sterile drape may minimise the risk of surgical wound contamination.
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spelling pubmed-40631332014-06-29 Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand Mehra, A. Deakin, D. E. Khan, A. Sheehan, T. M. T. Nightingale, P. Deshmukh, S. C. ISRN Orthop Clinical Study Background. “Lead hands” are frequently used to maintain hand and finger position in hand surgery. The malleability and strength of lead make it ideal for this purpose. The aim of this study was to determine the amount of lead transferred to a surgeon's glove during handling of a lead hand. Method. Sterile surgical gloves were wiped over the surface of a lead hand. The number of wipes was varied, the gloves were then sent to a trace elements laboratory, and the lead content transferred to each glove was determined. Results. The amount of lead transferred to each glove increased with increasing exposure to the lead hand. After twenty wipes, up to 2 mg of lead was transferred to the surgeon's glove. Covering the lead hand with a sterile drape markedly reduced the lead transferred to the surgeon's glove. Conclusion. Significant amount of lead is transferred on to the gloves after handling a lead hand. This risks wound contamination and a foreign body reaction. Covering the lead hand with a sterile drape may minimise the risk of surgical wound contamination. International Scholarly Research Network 2011-12-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4063133/ /pubmed/24977071 http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2011/946370 Text en Copyright © 2011 A. Mehra et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Clinical Study
Mehra, A.
Deakin, D. E.
Khan, A.
Sheehan, T. M. T.
Nightingale, P.
Deshmukh, S. C.
Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand
title Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand
title_full Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand
title_fullStr Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand
title_full_unstemmed Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand
title_short Lead Contamination of Surgical Gloves by Contact with a Lead Hand
title_sort lead contamination of surgical gloves by contact with a lead hand
topic Clinical Study
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4063133/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24977071
http://dx.doi.org/10.5402/2011/946370
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