Healthcare professionals urged to consider the size of their hands when it comes to using alcohol-based hand sanitizer, to ensure adequate coverage by the product, according to an article on the Infection Control Today website.

In a study of whether the volume of alcohol-based handrub used by healthcare workers affects the residual bacterial concentration on their hands according to hand size, researchers found that bacterial reduction was significantly lower for large hands compared with small hands, which suggests a need for customizing the volume of alcohol-based hand rub.

There is evidence that the volume of sanitizer used should be large enough to cover the whole surface area of both hands, but there is no consensus on how much is the minimum necessary.

 "It is a matter of concern that healthcare workers with large hands could not achieve a minimum of 2 log10 reduction of bacteria on their hands by the application of 3mL of ABHR, the volume recommended by most manufacturers," researchers said.

Read the article.