It has long been the practice in the health care profession to wear gloves for protective and sanitary purposes. Conventionally, the gloves worn by health care professionals during surgical procedures, and the like, are fabricated from a thin gauge elastomeric material, such as latex. These elastomeric gloves stretch to the shape of the human hand, providing a very close fit and allowing relatively unimpaired sense of feel--necessities for many procedures performed by health care professionals. due to the close fit requirements for this class of gloves, it is very difficult to don or remove them. There already exists extensive prior art disclosing methods of treating the gloves so that they are more easily put on the hands of the user, but there still exists a need for a means to more easily and neatly remove the gloves. With the gloves currently employed by health care professionals, it is necessary to reach under the edge of the opening at the wrist portion of the glove with one finger of the opposite hand and peel the edge down the wrist or forearm or the like towards the fingertips, thereby removing the gloves, reaching under the edge at the opening of the glove while it is worn and stretched taught is made difficult.
The matter of glove removal is further complicated when sanitation is a concern. During the many procedures where elastomeric gloves are used, the exterior surface may be contaminated with biological or chemical hazards or the like. Consequently, when it is necessary to reach under the edge at the opening of the glove at the wrist or forearm, the protection offered by the implementation of the gloves is diminished significantly since the exteriors of both gloves worn by the user represent a risk of contamination. In order to remove the first contaminated glove, the user must use the second contaminated glove to reach under the edge at the opening of the first glove, thereby risking physical contact with said contaminated exterior of said second glove.
Merely as an example, elastomeric gloves of the type previously referred to are conventionally worn during surgical procedures by the surgeon performing the procedure and the staff assisting the surgeon. In a large portion of surgical procedures commonly performed, it is inevitable that the exterior surface of the gloves worn by the surgeon become contaminated with the blood of the patient. Afterwards, should the surgeon try to remove the gloves from his hands by himself by reaching under the edge at the opening of one of the gloves with the second gloved hand, it is virtually impossible to escape making physical contact with the contaminated surface of the second glove. With the growing concern about blood transmittable diseases such as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, otherwise known as AIDS, contact with the blood of other persons, who may or may not be infected with such a virus, is very undesirable.