Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from highly infectious diseases such as COVID-19. However, hospitals have been at risk of running out of the safe and effective PPE including personal protective clothing needed to treat patients with COVID-19, due to unprecedented global demand. In addition, there are only limited manufacturing facilities of such clothing available worldwide, due to a lack of available knowledge about relevant technologies, ineffective supply chains, and stringent regulatory requirements. Therefore, there remains a clear unmet need for coordinating the actions and efforts from scientists, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, and regulatory bodies to develop and produce safe and effective protective clothing using the technologies that are locally available around the world. In this review, we discuss currently used PPE, their quality, and the associated regulatory standards. We survey the current state-of-the-art antimicrobial functional finishes on fabrics to protect the wearer against viruses and bacteria and provide an overview of protective medical fabric manufacturing techniques, their supply chains, and the environmental impacts of current single-use synthetic fiber-based protective clothing. Finally, we discuss future research directions, which include increasing efficiency, safety, and availability of personal protective clothing worldwide without conferring environmental problems.

Sustainable Personal Protective Clothing for Healthcare Applications: A Review.

The paper critically reviews medical garments with various functions and development aspects. Textiles used and developing technologies are systematically introduced. Medical garment products are described according to three major functions: protective, treatment and caring functions. Although the main theme of this paper discusses products for the elderly and the disabled, it also contains major parts on medical garments, which include personal protective equipment (PPE), hip protectors (HP), pressure garments (PG), compression stockings (CS), wet dressings, products for wound dressing, adult incontinence products, sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, vital signs monitoring garments, motion aware clothing, wearable sensors and smart diapers and so on. The development of apparel for the elderly and the disabled is a challenge for the healthcare and clothing industries. The developed apparel products are not only based on various design, fashion and comfort concepts but also considered in terms of particu...

Development of Medical Garments and Apparel for the Elderly and the Disabled

Iezzoni LI, O'Day BL. New York, NY 10157, Oxford University Press Inc, 2006, hardcover, 366 pp, illus, ISBN: 0-19-517276-0, $65.

This book describes experiences and issues that adults with physical and sensory disabilities may encounter when seeking primary health care and suggests ways that these individuals and health care practitioners can circumvent common barriers in order to ensure high-quality care. The authors—one has a physical disability, the other has a visual disability—skillfully combine both quantitative and qualitative information that offers recommendations and ideas to help the health care practitioner and manager deliver the highest quality care possible to people with disabilities. The authors discuss barriers such as the “built environment,” medical equipment, institutional policies and procedures, and clinicians' technical knowledge and interpersonal communication, among many others. Some of these barriers are more commonly written about than others, and the authors adeptly explore these additional obstacles to quality care.

The book has 3 parts. Part I explores overall social …

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More Than Ramps: A Guide to Improving Health Care Quality and Access for People With Disabilities

Aims Determine whether disposable or reusable drapes are better at reducing surgical site infection (SSI) rates. Methods A systematic review of the English literature from inception to 2018 with search terms relating to infection and drapes in orthopaedic and spine surgery. Results No orthopaedic or spinal surgery studies assessed the risk of SSI between reusable or disposable drapes. However, two articles, with conflicting results, compared current reusable and disposable drapes in other surgical disciplines. Conclusion There is no evidence to support a difference between reusable or disposable drapes to reduce the risk of SSI in orthopaedic and spinal surgery.

https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/173662684/Manuscript..pdf

Does the type of surgical drape (disposable versus non-disposable) affect the risk of subsequent surgical site infection?

Standards for surgical procedures and medical clothing, designed for use in the operating theatre, have been gradually developed with the progress in science and technology. Standard No. EN 13795:2011, determining the requirements concerning materials for production of surgical gowns, was introduced in 2003. It concerns, e.g., resistance to microbial penetration. Little attention is given to thermal comfort, even though it is well known that thermal discomfort can have an adverse effect on the quality and efficiency of work. During a real-life test and laboratory tests, 2 male surgeons and 8 male volunteers were asked to describe their subjective sensations before and after work. The results of the real-life test and the laboratory tests are comparable. They show a clear lack of thermal comfort when medical clothing designed for the operating theatre is used.

Thermal sensations of surgeons during work in surgical gowns.

Hospitals will continue to be the largest consumers of disposables, because of the diverse range of procedures they provide. Favourable growth is forecast for non‐wovens. Increasing concern over contamination and nosocomial infections will boost the demand for consumable and disposable surgical gowns and drapes. But, until now neither the manufacturers nor the end users of surgical gowns and drapes could agree on standards. So, a mandatory European standard is being developed to establish basic requirements and test methods for disposable and reusable materials used for surgical gowns and drapes. Once this standard has been adopted, the continued use of cotton textiles and conventional cotton‐polyester mixed textiles will become questionable.

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Designing surgical clothing and drapes according to the new technical standards

Kullanicilarin giyim konforu ile direkt olarak ilgili olan giyim materyallerinin isil ozellikleri, uzerinde giysi bulunan vucut ile bulundugu cevre arasindaki isi transferini kapsamaktadir Bir giysinin isil ozellikleri, o giysinin kullanicisina ne olcude iyi isil bariyer sagladiginin nicel bir degerlendirmesini sunmaktadir Isil mankenler, uzun yillardan beri giysilerin isil izolasyon degerlerinin olculmesinde ve isil cevrenin degerlendirilmesinde kullanilmaktadirlar Hazir giyim endustrisi, ileri duzeydeki isil ozelliklere sahip giyim sistemlerinin gelistirilmesinde isil mankenleri kullanmaktadir Bu calismanin amaci, farkli ozellikteki (Spunlace-Normal, Spunlace-Takviyeli, SMS-Normal) tek kullanimlik ameliyat onluklerinin isil konfor ozelliklerinin bir isil manken kullanilarak belirlenmesidir

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An investigation on the comfort properties for different disposable surgical gowns by using thermal manikin

More and more disposable goods are available in surgical rooms. Rules and standards have been proposed in order to prevent infection from patient to surgical team and vice versa. A proposed mandatory European standard prEn 13795 “Surgical drapes, gowns and clear air suits used as medical devices, for patients, clinical staff and equipment”, is being developed by the Committee of European Normalisation and specifies the basic performance requirements and test methods for single‐use and reusable materials after sterilisation process. Therefore, the performances of the surgical gowns demand a balance between barrier and comfort properties. In comfort evaluation, tactile feeling is one of the most primary and important aspects with regard to the grading of the products. Therefore, the influence of the sterilisation process on the tactile perception is important to be evaluated. Subsequently, the final aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of influence of sterilisation treatment on the tactile perception.

Influence of the sterilisation process on the tactile feeling of surgical gowns

This work has been funded by FEDER through Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE and by national funds by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia in the context of project PEst-C/CTM/UI0264/2011.

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/37256/1/ArtigoJEFF2015Repositorium.pdf

Cost and efficiency analysis of commercial softeners in the sewability behavior of cotton fabrics

/pdf/evaluating-the-thermal-comfort-properties-of-rize-s-3tp33aj3de.pdf

Maria José Abreu

Papers

Designing surgical clothing and drapes according to the new technical standards

An investigation on the comfort properties for different disposable surgical gowns by using thermal manikin

Influence of the sterilisation process on the tactile feeling of surgical gowns

Cost and efficiency analysis of commercial softeners in the sewability behavior of cotton fabrics

Evaluating the thermal comfort properties of Rize’s traditional hemp fabric (Feretiko) using a thermal manikin