Compression Textiles for Medical, Sports, and Allied Applications

Textile-based compression therapy is used in a range of applications, such as for athlete and sport recovery, enhanced proprioception, compression spacesuits, and in the management of chronic diseases. This book provides an overview of compression devices and products, testing methods to measure the properties of materials used in compression devices, and design considerations based on dynamic body measurements. It also includes a model for predicting pressure and details the challenges in applying compression for various applications.

Chapters in this book:

• Discuss the science behind compression therapy
• Delve into the materials used in compression devices and products and assesses their performance based on their properties and structure
• Cover theoretical modeling to predict the pressure exerted by compression devices on the human body
• Consider compression textile design based on dynamic body measurements

This book is aimed at professionals and researchers in textile engineering, materials engineering, biotechnology, and the development of textile-based compression devices and products, and at such medical practitioners as phlebologists.

Nimesh Kankariya serves as Director for Textiles and Materials Research Limited, New Zealand (TexMat Research). Much of his recent research focuses on smart textiles, including compression textiles and emerging technologies. He has been involved in several industrial-based research projects. Nimesh’s doctoral thesis “Textiles and Compression of the Lower Limb” is on the Sciences Divisional list of Exceptional Doctoral Theses, University of Otago, New Zealand.

René M. Rossi has worked at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, for more than 25 years in the field of the interactions between materials and the human skin. He studied physics and obtained his PhD at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Since 2003, Prof. Rossi has been leading the Laboratory for Biomimetic Membranes and Textiles at Empa, a group of around 40 researchers developing novel smart fibers, textiles, and membranes for body monitoring, drug delivery, and tissue engineering applications. He is Adjunct Professor at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich and Invited Professor at the University of Haute-Alsace in Mulhouse, France.