Surgical dressings is a general term applied to various fibrous materials used for scientific and hygienic management of wounds and for providing sufficient protection to the exposed tissues. They include both loose masses of fibres and fabrics, gauzes, lints, plasters, etc. made from fibres. For convenience of description, surgical dressings may be divided into various smaller groups according to their state of occurrence, composition, method of preparation and uses.
The groups of various types of surgical dressings may be summerized as follows:
Cotton fabrics form the basic materials for the preparation of most of the above surgical dressings, although wool constitutes main material of some special bandages. Cotton fabrics are woven materials prepared from cotton yarns. The thickness of the yam and the type of the weave of the fabric vary with the type of the surgical dressings made. The number of threads per inch of the warp (threads running lengthwise) and weft (threads crossing the warp at right angles) of the fabric also varies from dressing to dressing.