Abstract
Textiles are no more restricted for apparel use only. That
is why the products of important segments such as agrotech, buildtech, geotech,
mobitech, hometech, meditech, indutech are of recent interest under technical
textiles. One can expect performance and functional properties in those
products rather than aesthetic or decorative attraction.
Out of the different technical textile segments, the
Indian market for medical textiles, currently worth around US$500 million, is
witnessing robust growth of about 10-12% a year. This put medical textiles
among the top three fastest-growing segments of technical textiles in the
country. However, compared with a global market of US$8.2 billion, that in India is still a very small. The medical textiles sector in India includes products such as
disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, surgical dressings, healthcare textiles,
sutures, vascular grafts, heart valves, artificial tendons, artificial joints
and artificial kidneys.
Today's healthcare worker (HCW) is faced with potential
exposure to a growing number of increasingly dangerous pathogens on a daily
basis. Among available variants of medical textiles, the effectiveness of
reusable surgical gowns can not be ignored in healthcare category. In value terms, as per the
report of The Expert Committee on Technical Textiles, the usage of reusable
healthcare clothing would be worth US$9.78 million (2007-08) as against US$
5.78 million (2003-04). In line with the growth of the Healthcare sector,
healthcare textiles overall are growing at a rate of 13-16% a year.
Apart from absolute reliability and comfort characteristics
of the surgical gowns, the improved bioclimatic and physiological properties
are also of increasing demands, such as durability, breathability, thermoregulatory
characteristics, ease of laundering, sterilization and antistatic behavior, low
level of textile chemicals and dyes with high mechanical stability.
Loosely woven cotton fabric had been used universally as
bacteriological barrier in earlier days. After a decade of trial and error, a
plastic surgical material was developed that made an ideal bacteriological
barrier, but it was deemed unsuitable because of heat retention. Then the
industry responded by introducing a variety of laminated materials made of
combination of polyethylene film and the non-woven, single-use fabric. At the
beginning of the seventies surgical gown made of better quality cotton,
cotton-polyester mixtures were introduced. But the unsatisfactory fulfillment
of the hygienic requirements led to an addition or a change of classical OR
textiles by so-called barrier articles in the form of tightly woven fabrics
with hydrophobic surface modification. The latest technology medical garments
are having base fabric as synthetic material like polyester/nylon etc. with
appropriate finishing to impede water droplets from penetrating ensuring an
initial barrier effect but allow water vapors to permeate, resulting in
increased comfort, especially for the long surgical procedures.
Read
Full Article
About the Author
The author has around two decades of working experience in
R&D, quality assurance and teaching. He is presently working with Central
Silk Technological Research Institute, Central Silk Board, Bangalore.
Originally
published in Asian Dyer: April 2009
