Abstract: OBJECTIVE To analyze the association of variation patterns of positive rates of microorganisms on the outer surfaces of sterile surgical gloves worn by operators with the duration of cardiovascular interventional procedures and explore the necessities of changing the sterile gloves when the interventional procedures exceed a certain time period so as to reduce the risk of health care-associated infections (HAIs) and protect the patients. METHODS Totally 90 times of cardiovascular interventional procedures that were performed in Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences were randomly selected. Microbial sampling was conducted on the outer surface of the sterile surgical gloves worn by the operators at different time points during the surgical procedures. The status of microbial contamination and positive rates of microorganisms were observed. RESULTS A total of 90 times of cardiovascular interventional procedures were included in the study, and 98 samples were collected. Totally 7 surgical procedures took relatively long durations, the samples were collected at multiple time points (2 times for 6 cases, 6 times for 1 case). The surgical procedures with the duration no more than 2 hours were assigned as the group Ⅰ, and the surgical procedures with the duration more than 2 hours were assigned as the group Ⅱ. The positive rate of samples was 4.00%(2/50)in the group Ⅰ, 16.67%(8/48)in the group Ⅱ, and there was significant difference between the two groups(P=0.049). Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and Bacillus subtilis were the predominant colonized or opportunistic pathogens isolated from the outer surfaces of the gloves. CONCLUSION As for the interventional produces with the duration more than 2 hours during which the operators wear sterile surgical gloves and the positive rate of bacteria on outer surfaces of the gloves is higher than the interventional procedures with duration no more than 2 hours, it is recommended that the sterile surgical gloves should be changed during the procedures under the condition of long operation duration.