Role of advanced textile materials in healthcare

The growing awareness of, and demand for, better healthcare, particularly in developed nations, is a major factor in moving the medical textile market towards high value added niche product segments, Disposable medical products are experiencing phenomenal growth due to the growing awareness of infectious diseases, critical reassessment of clinical practices for improved clinical hygiene and need for advanced materials for better healthcare at lower cost. This requires the simultaneous applications of wide ranging technologies to develop new advanced textile materials to address the diverse needs of the healthcare industry. The traditional applications of textiles in healthcare, including non-implantable materials, such as wipes and swabs, gauzes, bandages, wound dressing, surgical wear, masks, orthopaedic applications, light support and compression garments, are also receiving constant attention for more innovative developments to provide better care and cure. However, recent radical developments in the field of surgical implants, extracorporeal devices, tissue engineering, antimicrobial barrier fabrics, hard-tissue applications in orthopaedic implants, cardiovascular devices, endovascular treatments, biosorbable polymeric and even "wearable vitaminized" fibre materials have resulted in radical changes in the medical textile industry. To develop these new applications, polymer scientists, physicist, doctors and textile researchers have joined hands in conducting the required advanced multi-disciplinary experiments. This paper will discuss both traditional and new developments in medical textiles, with the emphasis on recent high-tech applications. This paper will also deal with emerging textile products, such as sensor embedded fabrics for diagnostic and monitoring applications of patients in healthcare. Such "sensitive" fabrics and garments containing sensors and conductive fibres, and termed "wearable electronics" or "intelligent textiles", can be interfaced with microprocessors for monitoring heart beat, body temperature, stroke patients in bed, tightness of pressure garments, CAT scanning and medical imaging.