A New Approach to Surgical Gowns (original) (raw)
Related papers
Reusable Gowns for routine use in hospital and laboratory: a necessity arising of COVID-19 Pandemic
COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has started a paradigm shift in working in a hospital or laboratory and airborne precautions have become equally significant as universal blood and body fluid precautions. Use of PPE including surgical masks or N95FFR is becoming a norm and this has led to scarcity of PPE for healthcare workers. We have prepared gowns for healthcare and laboratory workers made from a reusable material and tested with various disinfectants and heat. The cloth could tolerate repeated exposures to heat, alcohol, hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide, but was damaged by phenol. Since this impermeable material did not allow the air to pass, we used a cool vest made up of indigenous Khadi cloth with pockets containing phase change material. The cost of whole reusable assembly of gown and cap was Indian Rupees 250 (1 USD=76 INR). This can be used in healthcare workers in hospital and community as well as people in diagnostic and research laboratories as a cost effective ...
The Professional Medical Journal
Background: Around the world, majority of the public and private sector hospitals are using reusable gowns and scrubs whereas only a few hospitals are using disposable ones. Protection during surgery is very important both for the patient as well as for the surgeon. The reasons are not only hygienic but also creating a barrier so that the bacteria and the viruses do not transfer from patient to doctor and vice versa. The surgical gowns have been in use for many decades. With the advancements in the field of manufacturing (weaving and finishing), the quality of gowns has been improving over the period of time. In Pakistan, there is no awareness yet regarding the construction of surgical apparels viz. surgical gowns and scrubs so no standards are being followed as such during the manufacturing (weaving & finishing) of surgical apparels. For effective barrier function of surgical gowns and scrubs, it is necessary for them to comply with certain standards in terms of physical characteri...
American Journal of Infection Control, 1997
Background: Relationships between selected fabric characteristics and the barrier effectiveness of surgical gown fabrics to liquid strike-through and bacterial transmission were examined. Methods: Eight commercially available surgical gowns were evaluated in this study. Five of the gowns were disposable and were produced from nonwoven fabrics. Three of the gowns were reusable and were produced from woven fabrics. Standard test methods were used to evaluate the fabrics. Fabric characteristics evaluated included thickness, weight, pore size, and oil and water repellency. Yarn count was determined for the woven fabrics to establish the number of yarns per inch in both the warp (lengthwise) and fill (crosswise) fabric direction. Resistance of the fabrics to the penetration of microorganism suspensions under a hydrostatic pressure was determined. Microorganisms used in this study were Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Scanning electron micrographs are presented to illustrate differences among fabrics. Results: Results of this study showed that fabric characteristics of construction, repellency, and pore size contributed to gown performance. Liquid strike-through was not always accompanied by bacterial transmission. Conclusions: Higher fabric repellency ratings and smaller pore size generally corresponded with higher barrier properties.
Patient Safety in Surgery, 2012
Background: To prevent surgical site infection it is desirable to keep bacterial counts low in the operating room air during orthopaedic surgery, especially prosthetic surgery. As the air-borne bacteria are mainly derived from the skin flora of the personnel present in the operating room a reduction could be achieved by using a clothing system for staff made from a material fulfilling the requirements in the standard EN 13795. The aim of this study was to compare the protective capacity between three clothing systems made of different materialsone mixed cotton/ polyester and two polyesters -which all had passed the tests according to EN 13795.
2009
Surgical scrubs are made with both fabric and non-fabric material. The study aimed to observe whether there is scientific evidence, according to the systematic review, that supports the practice of wearing scrubs in surgeries, according to the material they are made of. Basic intervention studies were considered, which investigated contamination and/or infection of the surgical site with the use of either reusable or single-use surgical scrubs, using people submitted to surgeries as the study population, either in real or simulated situations, at any period, without any language limitations. The strategy of searching electronic databases was used to find studies. With this, difficulties in isolating the object of intervention from countless other factors that can interfere in the outcomes were identified in studies of this type. Two studies (E1 and E2) showed strong evidence for the recommendation. In conclusion, there is no difference in contamination and infection of the surgical ...
An innovative low-cost personal protective equipment gown made by biomedical trash bags
Indian Journal of Child Health, 2021
professionals to wear PPE while attending patients in the COVID facility and areas of high-risk exposure [4]. However, there is a gap in the demands and supply of this equipment as the number of cases has been increasing day by day. This imminent shortage has led to calls for having low-cost production of PPE's ensuring the safety of our health care workers (HCWs) as they care for the sick and potentially infectious patients. The component of the PPE kit is essentially meant to protect from infective droplet exposure, which is the primary route of infection transmission in COVID-19. The PPE gown is identified as the second most used article of the PPE kit after the gloves [5]. The PPE gowns are usually single-use gowns prepared from a variety of fabrics and fibers which are chemically engineered to increase their impermeable and liquidresistant properties [6]. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designed recommendations on PPE product consistency and standards for each of the individual PPE elements [7]. The list of preferred product characteristics is organized into three interdependent groups: Design features, material performance, and use desirability. It includes the engineering and human and ABSTRACT Introduction: Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, gloves, face shields, goggles, facemasks and/or respirators, fall protection devices, personal warning devices, and full body suits, as well as the head, eye, and foot protection. The recent coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic has imposed the need of having low-cost production of PPE's. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to create an indigenous, cost effective, easy to make PPE gown for temporary use in neonatal intensive care unit during the COVID pandemic crisis and to assess the ease and comfort of working in the indigenously produced PPE gown. Materials and Methods: The PPE gown was made using readily available material such as biomedical trash disposal bags, adhesive tapes, and stapler pins. We used the larger bags, which measured 100 cm × 55 cm. The bags were sealed at the base and open on the top. Each bag has folds on each side to increase its capacity when opened up. A structured questionnaire that included 10 questions with responses on the Likert scale used the ease of use of the PPE gown. Results: There were a total of 30 participants including doctors and paramedical staff. There was good internal consistency between the responses in questions (Cronbach alpha = 0.88). The mean and median age of study participants were 30.2 years and 30 years, respectively. The response for various questions ranged from 56% to 80% with an overall mean score of 64.56±10. Conclusion: A simple low-cost innovative PPE gown that can be made from a trash bag was found comfortable on preliminary testing.
American Journal of Infection Control, 1998
Background: Hospital gowns protect patients and health care workers from exposure to blood and other infectious materials. Previous studies have shown that certain gowns do allow blood strike-through. Because of worldwide increases in the incidence of Staphylococcus aureus infections, especially with methicillin-resistant strains, there is now increased concern regarding bacterial transmission through gowns. Methods: This study evaluated six gown types used in hospitals (one disposable cover or isolation gown, three disposable operating room gowns, and new and washed reusable operating room gowns). Gowns were evaluated for dry spore and S. aureus filtration efficiencies and were subjected to 20 time-pressure combinations with methicillin-resistant S. aureus-spiked blood (104/ml) to evaluate blood strike-through and passage of methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Results: Blood strike-through was lowest with disposable operating room gowns 1 and 2 (polypropylene). Disposable operating room gown 3 (polyester-wood pulp) showed the greatest strike-through and overall passage of methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Operating room gowns 1 and 2 showed minimal bacterial passage, whereas the disposable cover (polypropylene) only allowed passage at pressures greater than I psi. Bacterial filtration efficiency testing showed operating room gowns 1 and 2 to be the most protective; operating room gown 3 and both reusable (cotton) gowns were the least protective. Dry spore passage was greatest for reusable gowns. Conclusion: Different hospital gowns offer varying degrees of protection against fluid strike-through or bacterial passage. Gowns therefore should be chosen according to the task performed and conditions encountered. (AJIC Am J Infect Control 1998;26:85-93) Hospital gowns (isolation and cover or operating room gowns) have traditionally been worn
Frontiers in Dental Medicine
Personal protective equipment is used to prevent healthcare workers from contaminants. With the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, the use of effective PPE becomes more critical to avoiding infection by SARS-CoV-2. This preclinical double-blind study evaluated the performance of surgical gown textiles for penetration resistance against aerosols. The different textiles were divided into seven groups: (1) SMS PP OE Phobic; (2) Laminated Phobic; (3) Medical Barrier; (4) Trilayer Fabric; (5) Impermeable gown; (6) Impermeable with heat sealing tape; and (7) Clean Wear. All groups were exposed to aerosol-generating procedure for 5 min, according to Barboza et al. 2020. All measurements were recorded and exported to a datasheet for analysis using SPSS software. The groups showed significant differences (p < 0.01). Groups 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 proved to be effective barriers against aerosols and presented a constant behavior. Groups 1 and 7 showed pigmented areas of 13.05 and 48.23%, respectively,...