Antimicrobial biologically active fibers for medical applications

The use of textile materials in medicine has a long tradition. An important field of application of textiles in medicine is in wound care and prevention of chronic wounds, for which bandages and wound dressings are used. Modern medicine demands textile materials with special properties. The most important are biologically active fibers, and among them antimicrobial fibers which are able to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, fungi and/or other pathogenic microorganisms. Due to their high efficacy, antimicrobial fibers have become necessary in prevention and therapy, especially in festering wound healing and prevention of chronic wounds. Among all biologically active fibers and biomedical textile materials antimicrobial fibers are mostly used, mainly because of their ability for controlled and long-term releasing of antimicrobial agents and their stability against inactive factors, as well as their simple and easy application. The scope of this review focuses on properties of antimicrobial fibers and mechanisms of their antimicrobial activity, as well as physicochemical bases of antimicrobial fibers obtaining and test methods used to confirm their antimicrobial activity. Also, representative pathogenic microorganisms are listed. Antimicrobial fibers of natural and synthetic origin are reviewed, as well as advances and future trends in their development.