Reusable Protective Healthcare Textiles

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Reusable Protective Healthcare Textiles
AATCC Midwest Section Spring Meeting April 16,
2004
Presented by Ash Garg, Product Management
Group, Standard Textile Co., Inc.
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Hazards in a Healthcare Environment

• Bloodborne Pathogens
• Other pathogenic microorganisms present in body
  fluids
• Irritants

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Protective Textiles

• Prevent the penetration of microorganisms,
  fluids, or particulates through a fabric.
• Prime requirement to avoid penetration of liquids
  to the skin is that the blood or other
  contaminated body fluids not strike through the
  protective garment

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Hydrostatic Resistance

• A measurement of the relative ability of a given
  fabric to withstand pressure infers liquid
  resistance
• Typically tested on a Suter apparatus, which
  creates pressure by an increasing vertical column
  of water

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Hydrostatic Pressure Test

• It measures the penetration of liquids under
  steadily increasing pressure. The test consists
  of mounting a test sample of clothing under an
  orifice of a conical well in the tester and
  subjecting it to water pressure increasing at a
  constant rate until three points of leakage
  appear on its under surface. The hydrostatic head
  pressure at the moment of penetration measured in
  centimeters is reported.

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Suter Equipment for Hydrostatic Resistance
Measurement
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Impact Penetration Test

• The impact penetration test is used to determine
  the penetration of liquids upon impact (e.g.,
  splash by a liquid during a surgical procedure).
  In this test, an AATCC Impact Penetration Tester
  is used with blotter paper. The blotter paper is
  weighed on an analytical balance and placed under
  the surface of sample of clothing material. The
  sample is sprayed on its outside surface with 500
  mL of liquid from a height of 61 cm. The blotter
  paper is then reweighed after exposure to liquid
  impact. The increase in weight is reported as the
  impact resistance.

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Impact Penetration Test
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Surgical Fabrics

• Surgical Wrappers
• Surgical Gowns
• Surgical Drapes

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Surgical Wrappers

• What are surgical wrappers used for?
• Surgical wrappers are primarily used
• to protect the contents of surgical packs
• from becoming contaminated, allowing
• for aseptic presentation of pack contents.
  

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Surgical Drapes

• Fenestrated
• Non-Fenestrated
• Q What is a fenestration?
• A A fenestration is a fixed opening
  incorporated into the design of the surgical
  drape to facilitate access to the operative site

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Precaution Gowns

• Hydrostatic resistance of 25-50cms
• Fluorochemical finish
• Reduce the critical surface energy of the
  finished fabric
• Liquid resistant
• Control spread of infection from the visitor to
  the hospital environment and vice-versa

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Pillow Ticking

• Liquid Resistant Fabric
• Antimicrobial
• Anti-bacterial and Anti-fungal
• Flame Retardant

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Hamper Bags
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End User Requirements

• Resistance to bacteria penetration, wet and dry
• Resistance to liquid penetration
• No linting
• Bursting strength, both wet and dry
• Tensile strength, wet and dry

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Engineering Fabrics with Improved Barrier
Properties

• In order to engineer a barrier fabric to meet the
  changing needs, three areas were addressed
• 1. Selection of a hydrophobic fiber.
• 2. Construction of a fabric with a small pore
  size.
• 3. Use of chemical finishes to enhance barrier
  performance.

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Fiber Selection

• Polyester was the likely candidate for a barrier
  fabric because it is hydrophobic by its very
  nature, i.e., it holds only 0.3 of its dry
  weight in water. This is unlike cotton which
  holds 7-8 of its dry weight in water.
• Add to this its durability to institutional
  processing and availability as a continuous
  filament, it was the ideal candidate.

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Construction with Small Pore Size

• Pore sizes for barrier fabrics can reduced to
  around 2 microns by

1. Typically weaving versus knitting can
produce a fabric with a smaller pore
size. 2. Compaction in weaving, i.e.,
increasing the number of yarns per unit area
is better able to be accomplished today due
to the newer weaving equipment that is
available. 3. Calendaring uses two heated
rollers under pressure to further minimize
pore size.
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Microfiber Surgical Fabric
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Coated/Laminated Surgical Fabric
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Engineering Fabrics with Low Lint Properties

• Traditional spun yarns used in reusable fabrics
  and spun laced disposables are both constructed
  with staple fibers. The ends of each fiber is a
  potential source of lint.
• Filament barrier fabrics use continuous filaments
  that do not have fiber ends and are therefore
  relatively lint-free.

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Linting (continued)

• The surface of a product made from continous
  filaments have no fiber ends and therefore has
  very little propensity to lint.

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Chemical Finishes

• Today almost all standard performance surgical
  fabrics (disposable and reusable) use
  fluorochemical finishes to impart higher levels
  of repellency.
• Without fluorochemicals, these filament polyester
  fabrics would only have about 1/3 of their
  barrier properties.

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Fluorochemicals

• Good for reusables
• Heat treatments after cleaning reactivate the
  protection
• Fluorochemical protector molecules consist of two
  parts the fluorinated part and the
  non-fluorinated part
• Fluorinated part consists of carbon atoms linked
  to other carbon atoms
• Attached and surrounding each carbon atoms are
  fluorine atoms
• Greater the number of fluorine atoms and more
  closely packed they are, the better the
  repellency.

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Surface Tension
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Conclusion

• Cost and Performance Analysis
• Chemical Finishing
• Imparting functionality to textiles
• Innovations and Product Development
• Textiles, Chemical Material Sciences
• Protective Textilesan important measure to
  control infection in a healthcare setting.