Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The Development of Textiles in Medicine and the Healthcare Environment over Time

Chapter 3 Textile Materials for Healthcare and Medical Applications

Chapter 4 Fibre Types and the Polymers Used in Medical Textiles

Chapter 5 Medical Textiles: Finishing

Chapter 6 Ensuring Regulatory Compliance

Chapter 7 Implantable Medical Textiles

Chapter 8 Non-implantable Medical Textiles

Chapter 9 Healthcare, Hygiene, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Chapter 10 Extracorporeal Devices

Chapter 11 Intelligent (SMART) Medical and Healthcare Textiles

Chapter 12 Case Studies

Chapter 13 Medical Textiles: The State of the Art

Book Description

This textbook aims to ensure that advances in medical textiles are addressed and that recent developments are able to be appreciated and understood not only by medical practitioners and healthcare personnel but also by textile scientists and technologists.

The idea is to stimulate collaborative research and development in the field of medical textiles and to equip researchers with an understanding of the steps they need to take to ensure that their efforts, be they to develop new devices for implantation or items for external application, are carried out in such a way as to improve their effectiveness and enhance the prospects for their implementation.

Attention is drawn to the need to improve outcomes in the practical setting and to guidance on the detailed planning required prior to engaging in experimental work. Standard tests can help researchers to monitor performance, but for some important applications such as those required to demonstrate antimicrobial and fluid-repellent performance in most items of protective wear, standard tests consistently fall seriously short in terms of predicting how well they might work in the practical setting. Guidance is therefore given for their further development.

Chapters within the textbook cover:

• • The history of innovation within medical textiles with particular attention given to key concepts of the latter part of the 19^th Century and subsequent associated developments.

• • Textile and polymer science underpinning fibres, fabrics, nano-fibre technology and the functional finishes that can be applied to enhance the performance of medical textile products.

• • Woven, knitted, nonwoven and braided fabrics and the key performance characteristics of each fabric type which make them particularly suited to specific medical textile roles such as mesh, grafts, filtration and scaffolds for tissue engineering.

• • Implantable medical textiles, non-implantable medical textiles, health and hygiene products and extracorporeal devices that use textile products.

• • Legislative requirements for medical devices.

• • The design of experiments and suitability for purpose of textile test methods.
  • Case studies to illustrate how medical textiles are applied in practice.

The book provides essential reading for textile professionals, biomedical engineers, and others involved in the research, design and engineering of medical and healthcare appliances, and for those employed in the medical profession wishing to gain new insights into the wealth of materials at their disposal.

Praise for Medical Textiles

“This exclusive and up-to-date treatise on Medical Textiles is an extremely valuable resource for medical practitioners, textile professionals as well as healthcare policy makers. The book thoroughly illustrates the history as well as state of the art in the applications of textiles in medicine and healthcare environment. It has comprehensively covered different types of medical textiles, including implantable, non-implantable, extracorporeal, personal hygiene, protection, and the cutting-edge intelligent healthcare textiles. With deep insights into the raw materials and manufacturing technologies used for making medical textile, along with case studies of real-world applications, this book is an essential text for all those involved in research, development, manufacturing or application of medical textiles in the healthcare industry.”

Dr Tanveer Hussain, Professor of Textile Engineering
National Textile University, Pakistan

“This is the definitive and best-available conclusive text on medical textiles.

This text covers in detail the history and application of textiles in medicine.  Its description of the evolution of the use of different materials is accompanied by a nod to the pioneers of the past including Lister and Ogston whose use of aseptic technique allowed the development of safe surgery today.  It goes on to describe the different domains in which textiles are used in medicine before reviewing naturally-occurring and synthetic fibres along with production methods and techniques, and an in-depth description of finishes with particular reference to anti-microbial finishes which remain a topic of considerable interest, especially since the pandemic.

Textile use and deployment in the medical setting is often poorly understood by end users.  The current battle to produce pathogen-resistant materials, while offering a sustainable solution to the waste currently generated in healthcare, will be strengthened by this textbook which offers a systematic review of the topic in a digestible format.

This is a  fantastic resource which those of us in the surgical community without a background in textiles will benefit from hugely”

Rupert Wharton BM, BSc, FRCS (Tr and Orth), Post CCT fellow, Upper Limb Unit, Wrightington Hospital