Reusable Protective Healthcare Textiles

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

2. Hazards in a Healthcare Environment • Bloodborne Pathogens • Other pathogenic microorganisms present in body fluids • Irritants

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. Suter Equipment for Hydrostatic Resistance Measurement

7. 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.

8. Impact Penetration Test

9. Surgical Fabrics • Surgical Wrappers • Surgical Gowns • Surgical Drapes

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. Pillow Ticking • Liquid Resistant Fabric • Antimicrobial • Anti-bacterial and Anti-fungal • Flame Retardant

14. Hamper Bags

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Microfiber Surgical Fabric

20. Coated/Laminated Surgical Fabric

21. 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.

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. Surface Tension

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