Medical Textile is the multidisciplinary field which involves the applications of biology, textile engineering, mathematics, chemistry etc..

1. BY
N.K.Sathish Kumar,
III-Biotechnology,
KSRCT.

2. WHAT ARE MEDICAL TEXTILES?
Combination of textile technology and
medical sciences has resulted into a new field called
medical textiles. Textile materials and products that
have been engineered to meet particular needs are
suitable for any medical and surgical application where
a combination of strength, flexibility and sometimes
moisture and air permeability are required. Materials
used include mono-filament and multifilament yarns,
woven, knitted, non-woven fabrics and composite
structures.

3. Fig: Multidisciplinary nature of medical textiles

4.  These materials can be categorized into
four separate and specialized areas of
applications as follows: -
1. Non-Implantable materials: Wound Dressings,
Bandages, Plasters etc.
2. Extracorporeal devices: Artificial Kidney/Liver/Lung
3. Implantable materials: Sutures, Vascular Grafts,
Artificial Ligaments, Artificial Joints etc.
4. Healthcare/Hygiene products: Bedding, Clothing,
Surgical Gowns, Clothes, Wipes etc.

5. 1. Textiles of bactericidal fibres.
2. Hygiene non-wovens.
3. Bandage materials.
4. Suture – thread used to sew skin.
5. Operation and emergency room textiles .
6. Textiles products for surgery.
7. Textile reinforced prostheses – artificial replacement
of a body part.
8. Operating sheets.
9. Hospital bed linen and blankets .
10. Mattresses and their protective covers.

6. 11. Medical cushions.
12. Dental floss - thread used to clean the area
between teeth.
13. Synthetic skin.
14. General textiles for institutional and hospitals.
15. Doctors and nurses clothing.
16. Rescue service equipments.
17. Textiles for medical equipments.

7. 1. Repair or replacement of injured tissue
 prostheses of bone, joint or tooth
 artificial: heart value, blood vessel or skin
 contact lens
2. Assist/ temporary substitution for psychological
functions of a failed organ
 artificial heart/lung/kidney/liver or pancreas
3. Disposable article in a daily medical treatment
 tubing, syringe, suture, catheters tube inserted into a
body cavity to remove fluids etc..

8. 4. Navel drug delivery system
 devices for controlled release of drugs, plastic release
devices
5. Clinical lab tests
 tool with quick response, high accuracy, high
sensitivity for tests
6. Separation of blood components
 Plasma separation, cell separation, removal of virus
and bacteria

9.  1. Non toxicity, non-allergic response
 2. Ability to be sterilized
 3. Mechanical properties – strength, elasticity, durability
 4. Biocompatibility – Toxic materials which cause temperature
rise, inflammation, allergic reaction, deformity etc. are not
preferred
 5. Diffusion properties – drug delivery system, members in
artificial kidneys
 6. Optical properties – contact lens materials
 7. Polyurethanes – widely used in hemodialysis sets, blood bags,
heart assist devices and pacemaker. Example – biomer : high
tensile strength and artificial heart pumps.
 8. Silicon rubber polymer – internal applications, thermal
stability, flexibility and elasticity, plastic and reconstructive
surgery, replacement of cartilage or bone.
 9. PMMA(Poly Methyl Meth Acrylate) – bone cement, dentures,
repair of cranial defects, jaw correction, spinal fixations

10.  10. Textile materials used – fibers, yarns (mono-filament
and multi-filament), fabrics (woven, knit, non-woven),
composites.
 11. Major requirements - absorbency, tenacity, flexibility,
softness, biodegradability. It may be natural/synthetic.
 12. Biodegradable/Non-biodegradable.
 13. Most common natural material for Medical textiles are
Cotton and Silk.
 14. Artificial materials are: Carbon, glass, PTFE,
polyamide, polyester, polypropylene.
 15. Collagen fibers – speciality fiber, biodegradable
material obtained from bovine skin, used as suture, strong
as silk.
 16. Calcium alginates fiber – seaweed, wound healing,
nontoxic, biodegradable.
 17. Chitin – insect skin, fibers absorbed by the body, good
healing, artificial skin.

11.  Fibres used in medicine and surgery may be classified
depending on whether the materials from which they are
made are natural or synthetic, biodegradable or non-
biodegradable. All fibres used in medical applications must
be non-toxic, non allergenic, non-carcinogenic, and be able
to be sterilized without imparting any change in the
physical or chemical characteristics.
 Biodegradable fibres are those which are absorbed by the
body within 2–3 months after implantation and include
Cotton, Viscose rayon, Polyamide, Polyurethane, Collagen,
and Alginate. Fibres that are slowly absorbed within the
body and take more than 6 months to degrade are
considered non-biodegradable and include Polyester (e.g.
Dacron), Polypropylene, PTFE and Carbon

12.  A variety of natural polymers such as Collagen,
Alginate, Chitin and Chitosan have been found to be
essential materials for modern wound dressings.
 Collagen:
which is obtained from bovine skin, is a protein
available either in fibre or hydrogel (gelatin) form.
Collagen fibres, used as sutures, are as strong as silk
and are biodegradable. The transparent hydrogel that is
formed when Collagen is cross linked in 5–10%
aqueous solution, has a high oxygen permeability and
can be processed into soft contact lenses.

13.  Calcium alginate fibres :
produced from seaweed. The fibres possess healing
properties, which have proved to be effective in the
treatment of a wide variety of wounds. Dressings
comprising calcium alginate are non-toxic, biodegradable
and haemo-static.
 Other fibres that have been developed include Poly-capro-
lactone (PCL) and Polypropio-lactone (PPL), which can be
mixed with cellulosic fibres to produce highly flexible and
inexpensive biodegradable nonwovens.
 Melt spun fibres made from Lactic acid have similar
strength and heat properties as Nylon and are also
biodegradable.
 Microbiocidal compositions that inhibit the growth of
microorganisms can be applied on to natural fibres as
coatings or incorporated directly into artificial fibers.

14. Chitin and Chitosan:
 Chitin which is obtained from crab and shrimp shells,
has excellent anti thrombogenic characteristics, and can
be absorbed by the body and promote healing.
 Chitin nonwoven fabrics used as artificial skin adhere
to the body stimulating new skin formation which
accelerates the healing rate and reduces pain.
 Treatment of Chitin with alkali yields chitosan that can
be spun into filaments of similar strength to Viscose
rayon.
 Chitosan is now being developed for slow drug release
membranes.

15.  Poly lactic Acid (PLA) is thermoplastic polyester
derived from renewable feedstock such as corn starch,
sugarcane, wheat and tapioca roots. PLA products
contain bio-based renewable constituents.
 As natural fibers are low cost and degradable, it’s
reinforcement with PLA leads to a material which is
economical as well as ecological. New technologies are
used to reinforce fiber in PLA so as to give it more
strength and stiffness as well as many other features
suitable for specific applications.

16.  Poly lactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising
biodegradable polymer, PLA provides a unique combination
of advantages in that it is a material from annually
renewable resources with the look and feel of other natural
fibres, yet with the performance properties of synthetic
fibres.
 Some of the applications of fibre grade PLA are resorbable
sutures, implants for orthopaedics, surgical materials,
thermoforms, injection-molded or blow-molded containers,
oriented and blown films, and nonwovens.
 The most interesting aspect of the polymer is that the
material undergoes hydrolysis of the ester linkage in the
main chain during in vivo condition and leads to the
formation of nontoxic lactic acid, which is subsequently
consumed in the carbohydrate metabolism in the human
body. It is the L-lactic acid which provides polymer with
high mechanical strength and thus has an edge over the D-
form.

17.  The fibres based on these polymers can be used to
make scaffold to culture and grow living cells.
 PLA and PGA are the major bioresorbable fibres used
in implants. They can either be used as a single
polymer or by blending a copolymer of PLA and PGA.
 Varying the proportions of PLA and PGA alters the
degradation rate and strength retention time of the
fibre. These properties can be tuned depending upon to
the requirements of specific medical applications.
 The key advantage of using these polymers is that no
further surgery is required to remove the products since
they slowly degrade in the body without any side
effects. Also, PLA-based materials have been used for
bone support splints.

18. Sutures for wound closure are either
monofilament or multifilament threads that are
categorised as either biodegradable or non-
biodegradable. Biodegradable sutures are used mainly
for internal wound closures and non-biodegradable
sutures are used to close exposed wounds and are
removed when the wound is sufficiently healed.

19. A number of wound dressing types are available for a
variety of medical and surgical applications . The functions
of these materials are to provide protection against
infection, absorb blood/exudate, promote healing and, in
some instances, apply medication to the wound. Common
wound dressings are composite materials consisting of an
absorbent layer held between a wound contact layer and a
flexible base material. The absorbent pad absorbs blood or
liquids and provides a cushioning effect to protect the
wound. The wound contact layer should prevent adherence
of the dressing to the wound and be easily removed without
disturbing new tissue growth. The base materials are
normally coated with an adhesive to provide the means by
which the dressing is applied to the wound.

21. Bandages are designed to perform a whole variety of
specific functions depending upon the final medical
requirement. They can be woven, knitted, or nonwoven and
are either elastic or non-elastic. The most common
application for bandages is to hold dressings in place over
wounds. Such bandages include lightweight knitted or
simple open weave fabrics made from Cotton or Viscose
that are cut into strips; then scoured, bleached, and
sterilized.
Compression bandages are used for the treatment and
prevention of leg ulceration, and are designed to exert a
required amount of compression on the leg when applied at
a constant tension.