Textiles and textile fibres have long played a vital role in the medical and health care sector. Traditional products include bandages for covering wounds, sutures for stitching together the sides of open wounds to promote healing, substrates for plaster of Paris casts, and incontinence products. However, the role played by fibre-based materials has advanced dramatically in recent years. For example, bioglass fibres are now used in tissue engineering to create new bone structures, and textile scaffolds are being used to promote cell growth and build cell structures. Textile-based stents—small cylindrical tubes made from biocompatible materials—are helping to support and keep open veins and arteries. Many are complex structures and require the use of sophisticated manufacturing technologies. Textile stents can also be biodegradable over a predetermined period of time, thus avoiding the need to remove them surgically when they are no longer needed. Fibres are also being used in nerve regeneration techniques to repair injuries resulting from trauma or surgery. Furthermore, devices made of textile fibres can be implanted to release therapeutic drugs at controlled rates and for controlled lengths of time.
