G-Bact Antimicrobial Surgical Glove Launched in Europe

Hutchinson Santé announces the launch of G-Bact surgical glove in Europe. This innovative glove contains an exclusive antimicrobial layer that is designed to kill more than 99 percent of bacteria should there be a micro-breach in the glove.

Surgical site infections (SSI) are the No. 1 cause of mortality during surgery. (1)"In most cases, the germs come from the patient," says Dr. Jean Carlet, former chairman of the French National Technical Commission Against Nosocomial Infections, and a WHO consultant. "Other risk factors however can be attributed to the operating theatre environment: air quality, the use of insufficiently sterile equipment, perforated surgical gloves. On average, 18 percent of surgical gloves become micro-perforated while being used. Eighty percent of these glove breaches are not detected by the surgical staff.(2) These breaches may enable bacteria from the surgeon's hand to be passed on to the patient. A recent clinical study showed that perforated gloves doubled the risk of SSI."(3) Double-gloving provides extra protection by limiting the perforation rate of the inner glove, but in 18 percent to 48 percent of cases, both layers are perforated in the same place.(2)  Moreover, some surgeons are uncomfortable with the loss of dexterity caused by the thickness of the double-gloving, and by the layers slipping against each other.

G-Bact has been developed with the aim of providing an effective solution, which is comfortable and safe, to glove breaches issue and patient safety. The G-Bact is made from a multi-layer synthetic film that is resistant, watertight and reliable. The surgeon's touch sensitivity is not impaired; the glove has the thickness of a single-layered glove. If the glove is damaged during use, the physical failure is instantly compensated by the antimicrobial activity of the central layer that contains many reservoirs of a powerful antibacterial liquid. The "hand juice" passing through the glove comes into direct contact with the antibacterial agent and the bacteria are neutralized upon contact.

Specific in-vitro tests were developed to assess the efficacy of G-Bact on common bacteria known to infect wounds: Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. The results showed that the antibacterial glove G-Bact reduces the number of bacteria passing through a glove breach by over 99 percent compared with a traditional surgical glove.

G-Bact represents a significant progress in terms of patient safety, in particular:

- for surgery involving the insertion of immunogenic material (prostheses, implants, transplants, etc.) if a foreign body is present, a very low number of bacteria can trigger an infection (4)
- during cardiac surgery
- for patients with a depressed immune system

G-Bact has been certified as a class IIa medical device in Europe since September 2011. The pre-announcement of the product launch was made at the International Conference on Prevention & Infection Control (ICPIC), which was held in Geneva in June.  G-Bact is now available in European countries.

References

1. http://www.u44.fr/nos/INFECT.pdf

2. Widmer et al, Paper presented at 34 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Orlando, FL, 1994

3. H. Misteli and Al, Arch Surg, 2009; 144 (6): 553-558

4. Elek and al. British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 1957, 38:573-586

5. R. Krikorian and al., J. Hosp Inf, 2007; Vol 3, N°5, 311-315