Elastic Attributes of Fabrics Suitable for Therapeutic Compression Gloves

Abstract

Therapeutic compression gloves are commonly used in the therapy treatment for arthritis patients, treatment of hypertrophic scars on burned skin and in the management of lymphedema. In this research, the elastic properties of three commercial fabrics commonly used for producing therapeutic compression gloves were investigated. The experimental study was designed to simulate the repeated use of the gloves for assessing deterioration in fabric elasticity. This study has found that strain percentage, strain directions and the number of wales and courses per unit length have significant influence on fabric tension decay. The results of this study are important for understanding and selecting the most suitable fabrics for engineering of therapeutic compression gloves.