Design and fabrication of a blood penetration resistance tester
(Sponsored by Department of Science & Technology, New Delhi)
Investigators: Dr. K. P. Chellamani, Mr. D. Veerasubramanian and Mr. R. S. Vignesh Balaji
Summary
In recent times, the market demand for medical textiles has been increasing substantially. As infectious diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, SARS etc have reached alarming levels, the knowledge and means of protection from these diseases need to be improved. In an operation theatre, the body of the person to be operated works as a source of infection. Unless the doctors and other co-workers are protected from outside, they might be infected as well. Therefore, these personnel use a protective garment called surgical gown to safeguard them from undesirable infection. Indigenous instruments for assessing the barrier properties of surgical apparels are not available at present. In view of the non-availability of indigenous instruments for assessing the barrier properties of the treated fabrics, these fabrics are at present mostly imported together with the relevant test certificates. Due to this, the cost of the treated fabrics (treated against the penetration of blood and other body fluids) is rather high and this stands in the way of majority of the Indian hospitals going for treated surgical apparels. Hence, SITRA has conducted a project to design and fabricate an instrument to assess the blood penetration resistance of operation theatre apparels.
Major accomplishments
SITRA’s Blood Penetration Resistance Tester
Research reports / Publications:Available at SITRA