Use of suture needles with blunted end. Control group used conventional sharp pointed suture needles. Blunt fill needles are used to draw medications out of a sealed container. Blunt filter needles have an extra filter, which filters out solid particles from the liquid.

randomized controlled trial" or "clinical trials" or "clinical trial" or "random allocation" or "double blind". or "single blind" or ((singl* or doubl* or trebl* or tripl*) and (blind* or mask*)) or "latin square" or placebo# or random* or "research design" or "comparative study" or "comparative studies" or "evaluation study" or "evaluation studies" or "follow up study" or "follow up studies" or "prospective study" or "prospective studies" or "cross over study" or "cross over studies" or control* or prospective* or volunteer or (MH "Clinical Trials+") or (MH "Nonrandomized Trials") or (MH "Crossover Design")We intended to use a random‐effects model in the meta‐analysis when studies were statistically heterogeneous, but they weren't. We used a fixed‐effect model to pool study results. Germany. Attending surgeon and assistant during abdominal closure: fascia and muscle. Number studied 100 operations (400 gloves). Intervention group n = 98 surgeon‐operations (196 gloves) Control group n = 102 surgeon‐operations (204 gloves) Gloves changed before closure.

We pooled studies with sufficient data, and judged to be clinically homogeneous, with RevMan software ( RevMan 2011). Randomized Controlled Trial"[pt] OR "Controlled Clinical Trial"[pt] OR "Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic"[mh] OR "Random Allocation"[mh] OR "Double‐Blind Method"[mh] OR "Single‐Blind Method"[mh] OR "Clinical Trial"[pt] OR "Clinical Trials as Topic"[mh] OR "clinical trial"[tw] OR ((singl*[tw] OR doubl*[tw] OR trebl*[tw] OR tripl*[tw]) AND (mask*[tw] OR blind*[tw])) OR "latin square"[tw] OR Placebos[mh] OR placebo*[tw] OR random*[tw] OR "Research Design"[mh:noexp] OR "Comparative Study"[pt] OR "Evaluation Studies as Topic"[mh] OR "Follow‐up Studies"[mh] OR "Prospective Studies"[mh] OR "Cross‐over Studies"[mh] OR control[tw] OR controls*[tw] OR controla*[tw] OR controle*[tw] OR controli*[tw] OR controll*[tw] OR control'*[tw] OR prospectiv*[tw] OR volunteer*[tw]) NOT (Animals[mh] NOT Humans[mh) In five studies ( Ablett 1998; Hartley 1996; Rice 1996; Wilson 2008; Wright 1993) one surgeon per operation participated in the study, in three studies there was a surgeon and an assistant ( Meyer 1996; Nordkam 2005; Sullivan 2009), in one study there was a surgeon and two assistants ( Mingoli 1996), and in one study it was unclear how many participated ( Thomas 1995). In some studies the number of participants was partly inferred from the number of gloves used.We assumed that the number of glove pairs in experimental group was the same as the number of procedures, and used outer glove perforations as outcome. All studies used blunt or tapered needles as the intervention and compared them to sharp or conventional suture needles. Blunt needles are almost identical to sharp-tip needles, with the key difference of having an unbevelled (or pointed) tip. There are two kinds of blunt needles:

Ireland. Surgeons performing deep wound closure in primary total hip replacement surgery: fascia, fat and muscle not skin. Number studied: 68 operations. Intervention group n = 34 surgeon‐operations (number of gloves not reported). Control group n = 34 surgeon operations (128 gloves). Fresh outer gloves put on before wound closure and changed again before skin closure. MH "Health Occupations") OR health occupations or (MH "Health Personnel+") or (MH "Health Facilities+") OR health facilities or TX "health care worker" or TX "health care workers" or (MH "Personnel, Health Facility+") or (MH "Occupational Health Services+") or (MH "Occupational Hazards+") or (MH "Occupational Exposure") or TX "health care personnel" or (MH "Health Personnel+") or (MH "HIV Infections+")health care personnel'/exp OR 'health care personnel' OR 'health care worker'/exp OR 'health care worker' OR 'health care workers' OR 'health care facilities and services'/exp OR 'medical profession'/exp OR 'nursing as a profession'/exp OR ('virus transmission'/exp AND 'patient'/exp AND professional) For studies with multiple study arms that belonged to the same comparison, we intended to divide the number of events and participants equally over the study arms to prevent double counting of study participants in the meta‐analysis, but no such studies were found.