Introduction of Surgical Gloves

Surgical gloves are a category of medical glove made to a higher standard than examination gloves, with more precise sizing and, unlike ordinary exam gloves, supplied sterile. Their use in surgery began at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the late 1880s, when chief nurse Caroline Hampton developed a skin reaction to the mercuric chloride used to sterilize instruments; her future husband, surgeon William Halsted, had the Goodyear Rubber Company produce thin protective rubber gloves for her, and by 1894 Halsted had made sterilized medical gloves standard practice at Johns Hopkins. The modern disposable glove came much later: Ansell Rubber Co. Pty. Ltd. invented the first modern disposable glove in 1965, adapting the manufacturing technique used to make condoms.