The gloved hand as a thermal sensor during intra-operative peritoneal lavage: Is it accurate and reliable?

Background: The gloved hand is the tool used to determine the warmth of fluids used for peritoneal lavage at operation. Is it accurate and reliable? Materials & Methods: We recruited 24 surgical staff comprising of an equal number of senior and junior abdominal surgeons as well as experienced and junior surgical scrub nurses. We presented to them a simulated scenario of peritonitis due to abdominal gunshot and asked them to produce solutions for peritoneal lavage using double and single pairs of surgical gloves to produce twenty samples of warm saline, each of whose temperatures were independently measured and analyzed. We arbitrarily chose 39°C±1°C as the target temperature range for peritoneal lavage. Results: We obtained an overall accuracy of 40% in producing saline with a temperature in the targeted range. Temperatures below 36°C and temperatures above 41°C were produced in 41% and 15%, respectively. We found no evidence of significantly superior performance between the groups, however, we found a significant tendency to produce temperatures above 41°C when using a double pair of gloves than when using a single pair. Conclusion: We conclude that the gloved hand is inaccurate as a thermal sensor and should not be relied upon to gauge the temperature of irrigation fluids. We recommend the routine utilization of the microwave oven in the operating room.