Raising the bar on surgical gowns and drapes

Healthcare Purchasing News, Sept, 2004 by Jeannie Akridge

Comfort meets protection

While AAMI standards provide a superb indicator as to barrier protection, perhaps an even greater challenge lies in comparing comfort levels of various surgical apparel.

For one, comfort is an ambiguous term that is often in the eyes of the beholder, or in this case the wearer. As is the case with the example given by DeBaun, many surgeons have specific requests when it comes to their ideal comfortable fabric.

And secondly, talk to any manufacturer out there and nearly every one will tell you they have a product that provides a high level of protection in the most comfortable fabric.

So how do you sort through those claims?

To answer that question, you might start with the technology behind the fabrics being offered today.

Until OSHA's bloodborne pathogen rules came into the picture around 1995, the U.S. gown market was historically 80% wood pulp polyester spunlace fabric, relates Molnlycke's Swenson. Being a natural fiber fabric, it was very soft. In addition, said Swenson, the old spunlace fabrics, not having film laminates, and not being embossed or heat-sealed, were also very breathable.

As Cardinal's Koehn describes spunlace, "It feels like felt." He adds that "there is a population of clinicians who have used nothing but spunlace for their entire careers and are very comfortable with the protection and the way the material feels to them."

Currently, much of the advances in surgical medical fabrics are being made in synthetic fabrics. Lenhardt attributes this to the fact that synthetic fabrics can more easily be manipulated to achieve desirable qualities. "With a natural fiber you have to add a couple of layers to get more protection, which makes it thicker and a lot heavier to wear."

Adds Koehn, "With synthetics, we're able to dial back on the basis weight of the material and make it thinner than spunlace, but with about two and half to three times the barrier of the spunlace."

New fabric technologies

One of the newer technologies on the synthetic medical fabric market involves the blending of polymers.

For example, DuPont has been enjoying great success with its Suprel fabric. The fabric is currently being sold in a Medline gown, under the Aurora brand name.

According to Lori Gettelfinger, marketing and sales manager, DuPont Medical Fabrics, Suprel is a combination of polymers: polyester for strength and polyethylene for comfort and softness.

She confirms that while their previous fabric, Softesse, which was made of spunlace technology, was very comfortable, the fluid barrier protection was not as high as some of the competitive polypropylene SMS fabrics. "Users have had to make a tradeoff between comfort and protection until now."

The Suprel fabric has been tested to meet AAMI Level 3 protection standards. Gettelfinger notes that while AAMI standards consider a Level 3 gown, anything over 50 cm. of hydrohead protection, Suprel rates at 85 cm. hydrohead.

Results of informal testing at the product's introduction at AORN, showed that of 3000 nurses who tried on gowns made with Suprel, 95% said they preferred it to what they were currently wearing in terms of comfort, said Gettelfinger.