An overview of braiding structure in medical textile

Medical textiles is one of the major growth areas within technical textiles. Textiles are applied as medical and health-care products from simple bandage materials or sutures to a large variety of permanent body implants and scaffolds for tissue culturing. The design objectives of high-performance medical textiles such as implants are to mimic human tissue and human physical function as well as organs by means of a textile supporting structure. Textile technology allows designing of such anisotropic hybrid structures by means of innovative machine and material technologies. Braiding is a well-established technique for the production of different medical devices. The structure and mechanical behavior of the target tissue (eg, tendon or ligaments) can be adapted by braiding technology. Although there are many different medical applications for which braids are used, by far the most important product groups for medical braids are sutures and stents.