You wouldn’t expect latex surgical gloves to have much of a history. After all, they’re pretty perfunctory items. But you’d be surprised at all that’s happened during their relatively brief existence.
During the early 1890s, a doctor and professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital developed the first rubber gloves in an effort to help his future wife, a nurse, recover from a work-related skin problem.
The rest, as they say, is history. But it’s a very interesting history, which we’ll chronicle in this article. If you love history (as we do) or practice a medical profession, stay tuned for more!
First Let’s Talk About Latex
Latex is a form of rubber that’s used not only in surgical gloves but also in other medical products as well as household items like dish-washing gloves, balloons, and paint.
It’s a versatile substance, especially for preventing fluid seepage–that could cause everything from a surgeon accidentally being infected by a patient or vice versa to water getting into walls and causing mold to grow.
Latex has a history that’s only slightly longer than the gloves that made it famous.
When Was Latex Invented?
Native peoples of Central and South America were using rubber as early as the 11th century. They had some good uses for it, but it wasn’t until the French scientist Charles de la Condamine visited South America in the 1700s that it first became known in Europe.
Rubber got its English name when Charles Priestly–the 18th-century scientist who discovered oxygen–found that the new substance could rub away pencil marks. Other uses quickly followed, including the first waterproof raincoats.
It was Charles Goodyear’s 1839 discovery of vulcanization that most directly led to modern latex and rubber manufacturing.
The Vulcanization Process
Vulcanization gives natural latex/rubber resistance to temperature extremes. The process gave birth to the widespread manufacturing and of tires. Vulcanization is a chemical process in which latex/rubber is heated with sulfur at 140–160°C.
It involves the formation of cross-links between long rubber molecules to achieve improved elasticity, resilience, tensile strength, viscosity, hardness and weather resistance. This process is still in use today.
When Did Doctors Start Wearing Gloves?
Now, getting back to Johns Hopkins and the origins of latex surgical gloves… Let’s take a look at the history of gloves in medicine–latex gloves specifically.
William Steward Halsted is the Johns Hopkins surgeon mentioned in the introduction. He was one of four founding physicians of the now sprawling and highly reputed hospital and medical school.
Invention and Innovation at Johns Hopkins Hospital
Halstead is also credited with numerous innovations in medical technique and technology–quite notably the radical mastectomy surgery for breast cancer. He pioneered some enduring anesthetic techniques as well.
“Using an experimental approach, he developed new operations for intestinal and stomach surgery, gallstone removal, hernia repair and disorders of the thyroid gland.” It’s no wonder that Halsted is often referred to as the “Father of American surgery.”
And in his deep sense of responsibility for those who worked under his direction, Halsted developed latex surgical gloves.
A surgical nurse had developed an uncomfortable skin condition from heavy exposure to the mercuric chloride and carbolic acid used to sterilize surgical instruments.
Halsted took notice and asked the Goodyear Rubber Co. if they could make two pairs of thin rubber gloves to protect her hands. His surgical assistants were also quick to adopt the gloves and started wearing them regularly during operations.
It should be noted as well that Halsted and the nurse, Caroline Hampton, whose skin his gloves had saved were married a few years, in 1890, after the gloves were introduced to her.
Antiseptic and Aseptic Surgeries
This remarkable and charming series of events also was part of a revolution in surgical sterilization procedures. When others in Halsted’s operating room adopted the gloves, they claimed it helped their dexterity.
Meanwhile, there had been a movement afoot among some other surgeons to improve surgical conditions across the board. One of these was England’s, Dr. Joseph Lister.
Lister published the groundbreaking paper “Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery” in 1867. In 1876, Lister traveled to the U.S. to present his ideas and a younger Halsted became one of his adherents.
So, the combination of Halsted’s beliefs and his innovative ideas paved the way for modern surgical protocols and sanitation standards.
Ironically, though, Halsted himself was a relatively slow adopter of the gloves he’s invented. In later years, he speculated on this, asking, “Why was I so blind not to have perceived the necessity for wearing them all the time?”
Latex Gloves in Modern Times
The story of Halsted’s career and Johns Hopkins Hospital, in general, are fascinating and we recommend reading more about them. A lot has been archived about it. But now let’s move forward into the 20th century.
According to one study, in 1900, the mortality rate of post-surgery patients was nearly 50% from sepsis alone, but a lot of progress was made in the decades to follow, thanks to the work of Halsted and others. By the end of the century, it was closer to 2%.
But no solution is ever final, and a serious problem with latex emerged years later.
Descriptions of apparent allergic reactions to natural rubber first appeared in medical literature in 1927, and irritant and delayed-contact reactions were reported in 1933. It would be several more decades before the problem became severe.
“In 1984, the first anaphylactic reactions caused by latex surgical gloves were reported, followed in 1991 by the first report of a fatal anaphylactic reaction to latex.” Today, nearly a dozen unique proteins are recognized as major latex allergens.
Today’s hospitals and other medical facilities have moved away from using latex in surgical gloves and other products (e.g. stethoscope tubes and tourniquets) and are using substitute materials including nitrile, vinyl, neoprene, and polymer.
Since some 10% of healthcare workers are said to have latex allergies, it’s been recommended that healthcare facilities stop using latex altogether. Other industries, such as food service, are following suit.
Click here if you want to learn more about events affecting the protective glove industry today.
Latex Surgical Gloves and the Future
In spite of needing to substitute other materials for latex in gloves, the idea for modern surgical gloves will always be associated with Johns Hopkins’s Dr. William Halsted and his latex surgical gloves.
Without the original idea, perhaps no one would have had reason to consider alternative materials. And imagine how many illnesses and fatalities have been prevented during all those decades of latex glove use in medicine!
There is one final point of interest worth sharing here: What goes round comes round, and in 2008, Johns Hopkins became the first major U.S. hospital to stop using latex gloves and virtually all latex products throughout its facilities.
We believe Dr. Halsted had quite a strong entrepreneurial spirit. What a shame he isn’t still around to solve some of today’s healthcare issues. By the way, be sure to check out the rest of our blog to read other business ideas and recommendations!
