Medical science has roughly experienced three stages of development: ancient empirical medicine, modern experimental medicine and modern science and technology medicine.
So far, soft instruments such as surgical clothes and dressings have gone through the 1.0 and 2.0 era and entered the 3.0 era.
"A Brief History of Prehistory"
Before the 20th century, there were no protective procedures, and surgeons operated in overalls, without special operating clothes, gloves, masks and other supplies. Patients also do not have dressings to cover their bodies during surgery, so incision infections often occur, and 80% of patients die during or after surgery.
In the face of pathogenic bacteria in the surgical process, doctors and patients are almost like primitive people, in a state of streaking.
The first surgical garments were used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, just as humans were beginning to put on clothes and enter civilization.
Soft instrument 1.0 era - cotton material
Modern medicine began in the 20th century.
In the 1940s, with the continuous development of sterilization and infection control concepts, surgical clothing and surgical sheets and other soft surgical instruments were gradually applied.
Until the 1970s, surgical clothing and dressing were made of cotton textiles with loose structure and easy penetration, with poor barrier performance, falling of flocculation and other weaknesses, which could not solve the problem of pathogen penetration and easy to cause incision infection. Therefore, 93/42 EWG 1993, 2007 regulations issued in Europe prohibited the use of cotton textiles in surgical sites.
Soft instruments 2.0 era - non-woven materials
With the development of non-woven fabric, promote the emergence of a new surgical clothing - disposable surgical clothing, this surgical clothing has a good barrier, air permeability and the strength of the material, so by many medical personnel favor, occupy part of the market.
After decades of development, disposable surgical clothing began to occupy the American market for its high protection and material strength. The percentage of disposable surgical garments used in the US market in the early 21st century. 70 percent, and nearly 30 percent in Europe.
The biggest advantage of disposable operating clothes and operating sheets is that they do not need washing and will not be affected by the washing process, so the protective performance is relatively stable, but this also becomes one of its biggest disadvantages, because it is discarded after use, causing great waste of resources and environmental pollution.
Soft instrument 3.0 era - long fiber polyester fiber materials
In the 1980s, with the improvement of occupational protection awareness, cotton cloth and disposable non-woven fabric had defects in use, and hospitals urgently needed an economical and sustainable high-strength material operating suit -- a new reusable operating suit.
New materials based on polyester fiber appear.
After decades of development, the composite material has been widely used in the development and production of surgical clothing in European and American companies. In China, cotton gowns are still used in most surgeries, except for some surgeries with special needs. The major event that domestic doctors realized was the protective importance of surgical clothing was the severe acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003.
