Medical staple fibers: manufacturing and application of nonwovens for tissue engineering

摘要

The development of textile medical applications is of growing importance, as the market for medical products increases steadily. Textile characteristics such as the variability of fiber material, drapa-bility, controlled mechanical properties and their open porosity arise the interest to apply textiles as implants. For the textile industry these high-tech products represent an interesting niche with room for market expansion. During the whole development and design of the implants, the functionality and integration in the human body has to be taken into consideration, beginning with the choice of the biomaterial up to the modifications of the operating techniques. This includes the biomechanical functionality and integration as well as the complex production process and its approval. Thus a lot of requirements have to be considered.