An Overview of Medical Textiles

Urmi Nath
Textile Engineering College, Zorarganj, Chattogram

Introduction:
Medical textiles are widely used in clinical hygiene ranging from home use wound care and hospital bedding to surgery.

History of Medical Textiles:
The history of medical textiles began with the development of wound closures and sutures for thousands of years. Natural fibers have been used in medical applications since ancient times.

Egyptian era used natural rubber adhesive and flax yarn to suture the wound. The mummies were wrapped with linen yarn to protect them from chemical treatment. Ancient Chinese used flax fiber for sutures and a cotton cloth to stop bleeding, a wide variety of textile structures like woven, knitted, braided, and nonwoven are used in medical textiles. Today, medical textiles are involved from surgical gowns and wound dressings to skin grafts, artificial organs, and other health care.

Fibers Used in Medical Textiles Must Fulfill Some Requirements:

Must be heat and chemical-resistant
Must be nontoxic and not allergenic.
Must be no carcinogenic.
Must be able to disinfect but occurring no changes in physical or chemical characteristics.
Must be biodegradable and not biodegradable (where necessary).

Application Field of Medical Textiles:
Health care and medical textile are found wide variety of applications.

These are listed below:

Antiseptic wound treatment.
Compression therapy.
Prosthesis.
Coating and laminating.
Hygienic products.
Liver treatment.
Mechanical lung.

Classification of Fibers Used in Medical Textiles:
Fibers used for medical purposes can be classified into different categories based on various types.

Based on structure:

a) Woven Fabrics: Woven fabrics have dimensionally stable structures with less extensibility and porosity than other textiles and have a tendency to unravel at the edges if they are cut in the square for implantation purposes. The results of woven textiles in the field of medical applications include vascular plugs, tissue scaffolds, artificial ligaments, etc.

b) Knitted Fabrics: Knitted fabrics may be of two categories just like weft-knitted or warp knitted. The weft-knitted structures have high extensibility but are dimensionally unstable due absence of extra interlocking structures.

c) Non-woven structure: These structures are widely used in medical textiles. The end users are determined by the polymeric properties or fibers used and the bonding process used for the construction of the structures of nonwoven textiles. The application includes diapers, sanitary pads, surgical gowns, and surgical caps.

d) Braided structure: The braided structures are used in cords and sutures using different patterns with or without the core component. These structures mainly include porous nature which helps to absorb the fluids using the interstitial spaces present between the yarn and filaments in the braided structure.

Based on the source of origin:

a) Natural Fibers: Natural fibers are widely used in the medical sector for their absorbency power and comfortable feelings. Examples of natural fibers are cotton, silk, viscose, rayon, and hydrogel. Cotton is very useful during surgery for reducing bleeding. Cotton has some properties for which, cotton is more useful in the medical sector, it is soft, hypoallergenic, and has more absorbency. Cotton is also used to keep the body clean such as baby wipes, diapers, and feminine hygienic lads.

b) Synthetic fibers: Synthetic fibers are mainly used for internal functions in the human body such as artificial kidneys (Hollow Polyester), wound care pads (polyamide), sutures plasters (polypropylene), and artificial joints (polyethylene).

Based on area of use:

a) Extra Corporal Devices: These types of textiles are generally used to support body organs such as heart pacer, lungs, liver, kidney, etc. The applications include artificial kidneys (Hollow Viscose), mechanical lungs (Hollow silicone membrane), artificial liver (Hollow viscose), etc.

b) Healthcare & Hygiene Products: Medical textiles area blessing for healthcare and hygiene ranging from care and safety of hospital staff and patients. These products may be disposed of or washable. The applications include surgical gowns, caps, mattress covers, wipes, etc. that give protection from cross-infection among the patients, staff, and doctors. These textiles also include sanitary napkins, adult diapers, and baby diapers.

c) Implantable Materials: These materials are used for repairing the affected parts of the human body. For example, artificial joints, breast implants, pacemakers, and other cardiac implants.

d) Non-implantable Materials: These materials are mainly used for external construction on the human body (skin). Most useful examples include surgical dressings and gauze. These are used for wound recovery.

Conclusion:
Changes in people, and increasing expectancy led to advancement in the field of medical textile. Textiles are widely used in the field of medicine depending on the types of fibers and polymeric structures. It ranges from a suture to bandages, healthcare products, and artificial organs. Medical textiles have also led to more research and development in the textile sector.

Frequently Ask Questions: