The traditional purpose of surgical gloves is to prevent transmission of pathogens (usually bacterial) from surgeon to patient. Yet the hand is also the most common site of injury and blood contamination among operating room personnel. Thus, gloves also can protect against transmission of pathogens from patient to surgeon. This article focuses on the value of gloves for hand protection. The current data on such protection derive exclusively from studies that use glove leak and contamination as outcome measures. There are no data that measure protection in terms of actual disease transmission.