Medical textiles control

White, W.C., Bellfield, R., Ellis, J., Vandendaele, I.P., 2010. Controlling the spread of infections in hospital wards by the use of antimicrobials on medical textiles and surfaces. In Medical and Healthcare Textiles, Woodhead Publishing Limited. 

To define what we mean by a medical textile, it may be appropriate to use the same approach that has been established for a product qualifying as a medical device. Using this approach, n medical textile is defined as any textile product manufactured with the intention to be used to diagnose, prevent, monitor, treat or alleviate disease, to compensate an injury or handicap, to investigate, replace or modify the anatomy or a physiological process, or to control conception. This definition taken from the European Medical Device Directive (its U.S. counterpart is issued by the Food and Drug Association [FDA]) is made from a regulatory perspective and specifies what criteria medical devices need to fulfil to make them safe to use and make it possible to sort out... 

The purpose of antimicrobials in medical textiles such as wound dressings is to eithCT prevent infection from occurring or to contribute to the healing of infected wounds, and odour control is a subsidiary effect whereas, the inclusion of activated charcoal in wound dressings is specifically to manage odour. Activated charcoal cloth (ACC) is sandwiched/encapsulated between two layers of a polyamide nonwoven fabric. The ACC with silver has to be in close contact with the wound s surface in order for the silver ions to react with the bacteria causing the infection (Mcqueen, 2011). 

Mcqueen, R. H. (2011). Odour control of medical textiles. In V. T. Bartels (Ed.), Handbook of medical textiles (pp. 387—416). Cambridge Woodhead Publishing Limited. http //Medizin-akademie.at Accessed 02.03.15. 

Abreu, M.J., 2014. Suitable control choices exploring the roles of clean air suits and scrub suits in infection control. In EMH Medical Workwear Article. University of Minho, pp. 21-27. Anand, S.C., 2001. Medical Textiles. Woodhead Publishing, Abington. 

From a scientific point of view, medical textiles are located at the interfaces between technical disciplines and life sciences. On the one hand, the technical aspect concerns textile engineering, material chemistry, process control, testing and certification, etc., which are needed for the manufacture of high-quality medical textile products. On the other hand, life sciences such as medicine, microbiology, and other related subjects are required for the development of functional performances of these products. In practice, the different scientific and technical disciplines interact and overlap with one another, with new developments in any one of these branches able to generate new innovations in others. For example, new superabsorbent and gel-forming substances invented in chemistry have been applied in the development of new baby diapers and adult incontinence products. 

Since the characterization of odor is critical to the technical development of medical textile materials for odor control, it is important to have a quantitative assessment method that can offer a detailed classification of body odor. In this respect, many attempts have been made to establish qualitative description and quantitative grading of body odor. For example, six descriptive terms can be used to describe axillary sweat extracts acid, chicken broth, onion, sweat (acrid), butter, and floral. The intensity of the different types of smells can be graded on an 11-point intensity scale from 0 (none) to 10 (very strong), using which a highly trained panel of assessors can carry out a reasonably accurate assessment of body odors. 

Medical textile materials with odor-control properties... 

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