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Many of the ophthalmic surgical instruments are extremely fine and sharp. Due to the dim light environment required for ophthalmic surgical procedures, the passing of sharp instruments among surgeons and scrub nurses also poses a risk for glove perforations. A case-control study was performed to determine the number and site of perforations in the surgical gloves used by a group of scrub nurses during ophthalmic surgery. All six nurses working in an eye and refractive surgery centre in Hong Kong participated in the study. A total of 100 (50 pairs) used surgical gloves were collected following 50 ophthalmic surgeries. Fifty pairs of new surgical gloves were also collected. Every collected surgical glove underwent the water leak test. The surgical procedure perforation rate was 8%, and none of the perforations were detected by the scrub nurses. No perforations were found in any unused gloves. The findings indicate that glove perforations for scrub nurses during ophthalmic surgery do occur and mostly go unnoticed. Future studies should continue to explore factors contributing to surgical glove perforation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]