Numb hands in surgery

[Pianoboe01]

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Does anyone else's hands go numb assisting in surgery? I know it's definitely the gloves. I have tiny hands (size 6), but the gloves are way too tight on my wrist/forearm. And of course the gowns are way too big on me (I'm 4'11") so I always have too much sleeve bunched up under the gloves, making the compression even worse. Should I just wear a bigger size glove even though the fingers will be too long (the fingers of the size 6 are even a little long on me)?

 

[Blake]

Try bigger sizes. 7 is my lucky number 👍

 

[Chronic Student]

I was a scrub tech for a number of years and I experienced exactly what you are experiencing. It's like a transient carpal tunnel syndrome. You are compressing the median nerve hard enough and long enough to produce synptoms, especially when your tugging on a retractor. The problem is if you keep doing it your symptoms may not fade away right after you take off your gloves.

There are a number of things you can do to reduce the pressure on your wrists:

1. Move up 1/2 or a whole glove size or even switch to a different type of gloves if you are wearing orthos or browns, rather than he traditional whites.

2. The other thing to do is to get rid of the bunching of the gown material at your sleeves. If you feel comfortable enough with the scrub tech, ask them to pull down your sleeves so that they don't bunch or after you have your gloves on adjust your sleeves to get rid of the bunching.

Just be very careful, the white cloth portion is not considered sterile (this is in the strictest sense, some are more lax than others) and make very sure that you're gloved hands don't touch the insides of your gloves while adjusting.

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

-Mike

 

[Pianoboe01]

Yeah, I'll try going up a size even though the fingers will be long. I can't stand the numbness/tingling.

It also seems that whenever the scrub helps me get my gloves on that they pull the glove up way too high... almost to my elbow, which makes it hard to get rid of the bunching under the gloves once they're on.

I will definitely mention something to the scrub to pull my sleeves up a bit more to get rid of the bunching before gloving me.

Thanks for your reply 🙂

 

[BaylorGuy]

Try bigger sizes. 7 is my lucky number 👍

Small handed punks...8-8.5 minimum

 

[logos]

Make sure after you glove you pull the gown out some from under the sleeves of your gloves. This is especially the case if someone is gloving you. Just have the white cuffs of the gown under your gloves and try not to have any gown under the hand part of your gloves.

I had this happen once when I double gloved and went down a size instead of up...not fun.

I have large hands but short fingers ("cadet" size golf glove). I found that our biogel gloves (if they have this brand at where you are) had slightly shorter fingers than our "whites". If i would single glove i would just wear a biogel. If double it was 8 biogel under a 7.5 white.

 

[Discobolus]

I'm at the other end of the spectrum, my hands go numb because I can't get gloves big enough. The largest I've ever found are 9's and they work but still aren't big enough. They never keep them stocked in the ORs to I have to go to the main supply room and grab them myself whenever I scrub. I'm also 6' 4" and a really big guy, so don't even get me started on gowns or the 5 foot nothing scrub techs who seem to think I've contaminated myself when my hands are below nipple line, but still above their heads!

 

[Jedix123]

lol ouch... glad I'm not a giant like you..

 

[bigfrank]

I'm at the other end of the spectrum, my hands go numb because I can't get gloves big enough. The largest I've ever found are 9's and they work but still aren't big enough. They never keep them stocked in the ORs to I have to go to the main supply room and grab them myself whenever I scrub. I'm also 6' 4" and a really big guy, so don't even get me started on gowns or the 5 foot nothing scrub techs who seem to think I've contaminated myself when my hands are below nipple line, but still above their heads!

This is a very scary post.

 

[BaylorGuy]

Another thing i've noticed about numb hands is how you hold the instruments. I was doing surgery the other day on an animal model and i was sewing a little faster than usual just because the gas was turned off. Well, after surgery, i just noticed that I couldn't feel my thumb....it stated that way for a couple of hours. it sucked.

 

[ddmo]

I'm at the other end of the spectrum, my hands go numb because I can't get gloves big enough. The largest I've ever found are 9's and they work but still aren't big enough. They never keep them stocked in the ORs to I have to go to the main supply room and grab them myself whenever I scrub. I'm also 6' 4" and a really big guy, so don't even get me started on gowns or the 5 foot nothing scrub techs who seem to think I've contaminated myself when my hands are below nipple line, but still above their heads!

I hear you about the scrub techs. I love when they yell at me that my hands are too low, just because they can't reach up over their heads to glove me when I hold them normally.

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

Oh . . . I know discobulus. And he ain't kidding. Dude's huge

I'm pretty postive he'll figure out who I am in about 2 seconds.

 

[Discobolus]

Yep, lets see how many Big Navy Peds Guy's I know, oh yeah, just one!

Oh . . . I know discobulus. And he ain't kidding. Dude's huge

I'm pretty postive he'll figure out who I am in about 2 seconds.

 

[mysophobe]

If you double glove and put a half-size too big over your normal size, it will go up. That's how I get my perfect size. A size 7.5 under a 7.