Medical textiles and thermal comfort

Abstract: Achieving comfort and functionality in hospital apparel is critical for both healthcare workers and patients. The diverse hospital environmental settings and the activities performed by individual personnel pose challenges to the maintenance of thermal comfort and the necessary protective performance of medical apparel. In this chapter, the fundamentals of thermal comfort are introduced. Hospital environments and typical hazards that healthcare workers may be exposed to are discussed. Factors contributing to comfort and protective performance are reviewed with respect to the properties of textile materials and medical apparel. Methods and current standards for evaluating comfort performance are summarized.

[1]  G. Havenith,et al.  Correction of clothing insulation for movement and wind effects, a meta-analysis , 2004, European Journal of Applied Physiology.

[2]  U. Wilczyńska,et al.  [Occupational diseases in Poland, 2005]. , 2006, Medycyna pracy.

[3]  G Havenith,et al.  Relationship between clothing ventilation and thermal insulation. , 2002, AIHA journal : a journal for the science of occupational and environmental health and safety.

[4]  Phillip Gibson.  Factors Influencing Steady-State Heat and Water Vapor Transfer Measurements for Clothing Materials , 1993 .

[5]  Roger L. Barker,et al.  From fabric hand to thermal comfort: the evolving role of objective measurements in explaining human comfort response to textiles , 2002 .

[6]  K K Leonas,et al.  Effect of laundering on the barrier properties of reusable surgical gown fabrics. , 1998, American journal of infection control.

[7]  Guowen Song,et al.  Characterizing the performance of a single-layer fabric system through a heat and mass transfer model - Part I: Heat and mass transfer model , 2011 .

[8]  O M Lidwell,et al.  Thermal comfort during surgical operations , 1968, Journal of Hygiene.

[9]  W. Horner.  Assessment of the indoor environment: evaluation of mold growth indoors. , 2003, Immunology and allergy clinics of North America.

[10]  M H A Malik,et al.  Comfort assessment of personal protection systems during total joint arthroplasty using a novel multi-dimensional evaluation tool. , 2006, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

[11]  T. Wong,et al.  Effective personal protective clothing for health care workers attending patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome☆ , 2004, American Journal of Infection Control.

[12]  B. Hardman,et al.  Risk of blood contamination and injury to operating room personnel. , 1991, Annals of surgery.

[13]  M. Alter,et al.  Blood exposures and hepatitis C virus infections among emergency responders. , 2003, Archives of internal medicine.

[14]  M. Konarska,et al.  Comparative Evaluation of Clothing Thermal Insulation Measured on a Thermal Manikin and on Volunteers , 2007 .

[15]  Seungsin Lee,et al.  Transport properties of layered fabric systems based on electrospun nanofibers , 2007 .

[16]  Natalya Suprun,et al.  Some aspects of medical clothing manufacturing , 2003 .

[17]  C. Smith,et al.  HOSPITAL OPERATING THEATRE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ASSESSMENT OF FILTERS FOR USE IN ASSOCIATED VENTILATING PLANTS , 1975 .

[18]  Seungsin Lee,et al.  Use of Electrospun Nanofiber Web for Protective Textile Materials as Barriers to Liquid Penetration , 2007 .

[19]  H Laufman,et al.  A critical review of a century's progress in surgical apparel: how far have we come? , 2000, Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

[20]  Seungsin Lee,et al.  Developing protective textile materials as barriers to liquid penetration using melt-electrospinning , 2006 .

[21]  Guowen Song,et al.  Clothing Air Gap Layers and Thermal Protective Performance in Single Layer Garment , 2007 .

[22]  Subrata Mondal,et al.  Phase change materials for smart textiles – An overview , 2008 .

[23]  Roger L. Barker,et al.  In Vivo Cutaneous and Perceived Comfort Response to Fabric , 1990 .

[24]  D. Wong,et al.  Risk of Blood Contamination of Health Care Workers in Spine Surgery: A Study of 324 Cases , 1998, Spine.

[25]  Maria José Abreu,et al.  Designing surgical clothing and drapes according to the new technical standards , 2003 .

[26]  A. Horrocks,et al.  Handbook of technical textiles , 2000 .

[27]  W. Rutala,et al.  A Review of Single-Use and Reusable Gowns and Drapes in Health Care , 2001, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

[28]  Ken Parsons,et al.  Human Thermal Environments , 1993 .

[29]  June J. Pilcher,et al.  Effects of hot and cold temperature exposure on performance: a meta-analytic review , 2002, Ergonomics.

[30]  Andreas K. Athienitis,et al.  Assessment of thermal comfort during surgical operations , 2001 .

[31]  A. Schütz,et al.  A descriptive study of blood exposure incidents among healthcare workers in a university hospital in Sweden. , 1997, The Journal of hospital infection.

[32]  H. Polesky,et al.  Hepatitis B in ward and clinical laboratory employees of a general hospital. , 1977, American journal of epidemiology.

[33]  Myoung-Sook Kwon,et al.  A comparison of standard methods for measuring water vapour permeability of fabrics , 2003 .

[34]  R M Smith,et al.  Thermal comfort of patients in hospital ward areas , 1977, Journal of Hygiene.

[35]  Subbiyan Rajendran,et al.  DEVELOPMENTS IN MEDICAL TEXTILES , 2002 .

[36]  Linda Sicuranza,et al.  An Automated Dynamic Water Vapor Permeation Test Method , 1995 .

[37]  C. Papoutsi,et al.  Factors that influence the effectiveness of surgical gowns in the operating theatre. , 1997, The European journal of surgery = Acta chirurgica.

[38]  Son H. Ho,et al.  Three-dimensional analysis for hospital operating room thermal comfort and contaminant removal , 2009 .

[39]  The cumulative probability of occupationally-acquired HIV infection: The risks of repeated exposures during a surgical career. , 1990, Plastic surgical nursing : official journal of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical Nurses.

[40]  B. K. Behera,et al.  Surgical Gown: A Critical Review , 2009 .

[41]  S. Tanabe,et al.  Thermal comfort properties of cotton and nonwoven surgical gowns with dual functional finish. , 1997, Applied human science : journal of physiological anthropology.

[42]  G. Cannistraro,et al.  49. On the Assessment of the Environmental Comfort in Operating Theatres , 2006 .

[43]  Guowen Song,et al.  Characterizing the performance of a single-layer fabric system through a heat and mass transfer model - Part II: Thermal and evaporative resistances , 2011 .