Implantable textiles

Figure 2.9 Critical surface tension (CST) values between 20 and 25 d per square centimeter are favorable for providing a thrombo-resistant surface. This figure illustrates a satisfactory CST of an umbilical vein graft flow surface after having been retrieved eight months following implantation. Textiles and prosthetics tend to have higher CSTs.

High performance implantable textiles include implants, grafts, sutures, prosthetics and medical devices. The human body is an extremely well-designed and constructed structure, surpassing any machine that man has thus far been able to make. Its complex system and organisation is governed by an... 

Consequently, we do not feel that smart textile implantable devices should be addressed through case studies because examples of smart devices may risk narrowing the scope and inhibiting analysis of the whole textile implantable devices area. However, aU implantable textile devices are connected by a strict obligation of biocompatibility. Then we question whether and how the fundamentals of fibrous features could contribute to fidfill the biocompatibility requirement. 

This example of vascular grafts devices points out the evolution of fibrous implantable medical devices and highlights the great potential offered by each scale level of fibrous structures for biocompatibility improvements. Fibers as well as whole fibrous stmctures should be considered as implantable devices that have inherent abilities to interact with the biological environment at each of the three predetermined scale levels. Study of characteristics and specificities of fibers, fibrous siuface, and fibrous volume should then provide a more forward-looking approach in the textile substitute s area for design and achievement of smart medical implantable textile devices. 

Fibers have many features that could be advantageously used in implantable textile medical device design to confer them specific properties. However, expected to monofilaments, fibers generally need to be assembled within the stracture to be exploited. Cohesion is needed to withstand the textile process and/or handling. 

Surgical textiles Non-implantable textiles Implantable textiles Wound dressings, plaster casts, bandages, external fracture fixation systems, etc. Sutures, vascular grafts, ligament and tendon prostheses, bone plates, heart valves, hernia patches, joint replacements, artificial skin, etc. 

Figure 10.1 Some examples of implantable textile materials.

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