Double-glove perforation indicator system
A pair of sterile surgical gloves in a strongly contrasting color (often dark green or blue) designed to be worn as an underglove, directly beneath a standard lighter-colored outer surgical glove, forming a two-layer, color-contrasted "double glove" system.
How it is used
Used in surgery with elevated glove-perforation risk (orthopedic/trauma surgery, among others) because, if the outer glove is breached, fluid wicking between the two layers makes the underglove's strong color visible right at the puncture site, alerting the surgical team that the glove needs to be changed immediately.
Clinical tip
This color-indicator system is NOT the most common practice: many hospitals do "plain" double-gloving with two same-colored gloves, which gives the same barrier redundancy but without the visual cue — studies show that without an indicator, only 21-34% of perforations are detected by the naked eye, versus 77-83% with color contrast. A separate practical issue is friction between the two latex/nitrile layers during donning; some teams therefore don the inner glove powder-free (to minimize powder entering the wound if it is breached) and reserve any powder, where used, for the outer glove.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-05. Content last updated: 2026-10-07.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.