Medical textiles: what they can do and where to find them

Clothing, upholstery, covers – textiles surround us always and everywhere. But especially in the medical environment they have to meet special requirements. In addition, properties, shape and composition can vary greatly depending on the application – a major challenge for manufacturers. This and even more were the topics at COMPAMED again this year.

In the interview with COMPAMED-tradefair.com, D. Eng. Andreas Blaeser explains to us what medical textiles are, what special requirements they have to meet and what is currently happening in this area.

Dr. Blaeser, today  you gave the lecture "Recent advances in medical textiles and biofabrication technology" at COMPAMED SUPPLIERS FORUM. Where do we find such medical textiles?

D. Eng. Andreas Blaeser: In the extracorporeal sector, medical textiles are used, for example, as compression stockings, surgical clothing or smart medical textiles, i.e. textile-integrated sensor technology for measuring bodily functions. Textiles are used intracorporeally as wound dressings, reconstruction nets, vascular prostheses, sutures or as scaffolding structures for tissue cultivation, i.e. tissue engineering or regenerative medicine.

Why are these textiles particularly suitable for use in medicine?

Blaeser: Textile structures are characterized by the fact that their physical, biological and chemical properties can be adjusted precisely and in part independently of each other. The fibre or yarn forms the basic building block for textile material morphology. Depending on how it is processed, a high-strength fiber can be processed into a very elastic implant, for example. Another advantage of textile structures is their high elasticity and drapability. At the Institute for Textile Technology in Aachen, various technologies are used to manufacture medical-textile surfaces such as woven, knitted and nonwoven fabrics. We set a special accent with the knitting technology used in our company. Warp knitting makes it possible to produce medical knitwear with precisely adjustable mechanics and porosity. We take advantage of this special feature to produce scaffold structures for the tissue growth of blood vessels, heart valves and tissues of the musculoskeletal system - i.e. bones, cartilage and muscles.

What does this mean for production?

Blaeser: The manufacture of textile structures for medical use is subject to high material and production requirements. Textile implants are subject to the most stringent conditions, which are laid down in the Medical Devices Act, among others. The selected material must be approved for use in medicine (medical grade materials). The suitability of new materials for medical applications must be proven in extensive biological studies and subsequent animal experiments. The term biocompatibility is often used colloquially. This describes the prerequisite that the material - if worn as an implant on or in the body - has no negative effect on the surrounding tissue and the entire organism. Further requirements result from the specific application case for the textile, for example a high porosity for the ingrowth of tissue or adjustable degradation behaviour for textile structures with temporary support function.

What trends do you see in the field of medical textiles and bio-manufacturing technology?

Blaeser: One trend we have specialized in in Aachen is the biologisation of medical implants. This involves colonising the basic textile structures with living cells in order to obtain biological implants that grow with the patient. The cell-loaded textiles mature into tissue-like structures in a culture lasting several weeks. Biologization offers the opportunity to further improve the compatibility and exchange of implants with the host organism. In addition, the so-called biohybrid implants have the potential to assume biofunctional and physiological functions in addition to purely mechanical functions. In this context, we are working with clinical partners on the development of biohybrid blood vessels, heart valves, cartilage and bone tissue and the first precursors of heart muscle and liver tissue. In this highly interdisciplinary field of research, the Medical Textiles and Biofabrication Research Unit at RWTH Aachen University acts as a bridge between the textile technology associated with mechanical engineering and the Medical Faculty.