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Would wearing sterile gloves during venipuncture lower the rate of bacterial contamination of blood cultures, which is reported to range from 0.6% to 6.0%? In a randomized crossover study from a South Korean hospital, medical interns responsible for obtaining blood cultures were assigned to use nonsterile gloves for 2 weeks and sterile gloves for 2 weeks, in random order, when performing venipunctures. Infectious diseases specialists who were blinded to intern assignments classified isolates as likely contaminants based on blood culture results, susceptibility patterns, and patients' clinical histories.
More than 10,000 blood cultures were obtained during 6 months. The “likely” contamination rate was 0.9% during the nonsterile-gloving period…