Virus penetration of examination gloves

Examination gloves worn for protection from biohazards were sampled and evaluated for their ability to exclude virus particles. We found that thin gloves manufactured from polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride are ineffective barriers while gloves of thin latex are superior but not without failure. Polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride gloves had failure rates of 40% and 22%, respectively. Following exposure to the common disinfectant, 70% ethanol, these failure rates increased to 94% and 56% for polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride gloves, respectively. Latex, although permeable to ethanol, was penetrated by virus less than 1% of the time regardless of whether the latex had been pre-exposed to disinfectant or not. This study highlights the need for caution on the part of those who rely upon examination gloves for protection from infectious agents as well as the need for establishing more adequate standards and testing procedures for their manufacture.     

Perforation of the gallbladder: analysis of 19 cases.

Perforation of the gallbladder occurred in 19 (3.8%) of 496 patients with acute cholecystitis treated at one hospital in an 8-year period. The average age of the 19 patients was 69 years and the female:male ratio was 3:2. Most had a history suggestive of gallbladder disease and most had coexisting cardiac, pulmonary, renal, nutritional or metabolic disease. The duration of the present illness was short, perforation occurring within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms in half the patients; the diagnosis was not suspected preoperatively in any. In the elderly patient with acute cholecystitis who has a long history of gallbladder disease, cholecystectomy should be performed early, before gangrene and perforation of the gallbladder can occur.