The increasing prevalence of diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis B makes safe surgical techniques more important than ever before. Intact surgical gloves act as a barrier against these infections and a study was therefore done to determine the incidence of surgical glove perforation during obstetric and gynaecological surgical procedures. Surgical gloves were collected and tested for perforations following 353 consecutive obstetric and gynaecological operations. Forty pairs of new unused surgical gloves were tested for perforations in the same way. Whereas none of the 40 control pairs of gloves was found to be perforated, 22%-24% of used gloves were perforated. The experience of the surgeon had no influence on the incidence of glove perforation (P = 0.997; chi 2-test). Left-hand gloves were more frequently perforated than right-hand gloves, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.075: chi 2-test). These findings must be a source of concern to all those practising obstetrics and gynaecology and measures are therefore suggested to decrease the risk of HIV or hepatitis B transmission during operations.