Application of technical textile in medicine

Abstract

Medical textile is an extremely important subcategory of technical textile because it is covering a wide range of products. The term medical textile itself covers all types of textile materials that are used in the healthcare system for various purposes. Medical textile is also known as health textile and is one of the fastest growing sectors in the technical textile market. The growth rate of technical textiles in this area is due to constant improvements and innovations in both areas: textile technologies and medical procedures. Textile structures used in this field include yarns, woven, knitted and non-woven textile materials as well as composite materials reinforced with textiles. The number of applications is large and diverse, from simple surgical sutures to complex composite structures for bone and tissue replacement, hygiene materials, protective products used in operating rooms and in the process of postoperative wound treatment. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of technical textiles for medical, surgical and healtcare applications, to indicate which textiles are currently used in this field.