Suitable control choices: exploring the roles of clean air suits and scrub suits in infection control

Experts in infection control are often asked about issues related to the use of scrubs and clean air suits in the operating room (OR). So far there is no clear explanation or mandatory obligation why the surgical team has to wear clean air suits or scrub suits in ORs and, more importantly, what the main differences are between these two types of clothing. There is a general perception that the two are equal or very similar. So, what are clean air suits and scrub suits? Where did the concept and employ originate? Are they necessary from an infection control point of view? Are they useful in preventing or controlling transmission of infection? Clean air suits are considered Class I medical devices according to the definition and classification rules of the consolidated EU directive 93/42/EC as amended by 2007/47/ EC, while scrub suits don’t have any regulation for their use in a hospital

Clean air suits vs scrub suits: what are the benefits of using them for infection control in hospitals?

Experts in infection control are often asked about issues related to the use of scrubs and clean air suits in the operating room (OR). So far there is no clear explanation or mandatory obligation why the surgical team has to wear clean air suits or scrub suits in the operating rooms (OR´s) and more importantly, what are the main differences between these two type of clothing. There is a general perception that the two are equal or very similar. So, what are clean air suits and scrub suits? Where did the concept and employ originate? Are they necessary from an infection control point of view, are they an useful resources of preventing or controlling transmission of infection?This work has been funded by FEDER throughPrograma Operacional Factores de Competitividade– COMPETEand by national funds by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the context of project PEst-C/CTM/UI0264/2011

Reprocessing single-use devices: legislative issues in the EU

Reprocessing single-use medical devices raises issues of patient safety, ethics, the environment and costs. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the problems related to the reprocessing of single-use medical devices in the EU, with a focus on Portugal’s position regarding this issue.The financial funding from QREN, POFC, Vale Inovação Project Nº 2012/24228 is gratefully acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design and development of innovative non active medical devices: Clean air suits

Design fitting and comfort are an important subject to consider when we need clothes for protective and individual equipment. Construction of protective equipment requires ergonomics, fabrics and performance requirements studies. This paper is about the construction of clean air suits (CAS) for use in the operating room. This suits were developed to minimize the contamination in operating rooms. It’s important to develop clothing with good protective barriers, however attention must be given to comfort to obtain a suit that answers effectively for both protection and comfort requirements. Our study consists in selecting the best fabrics, woven and non-woven, that could manage protective and comfort requirements. We’re developing several designs, in order to foreseen the best design approach to a clean air suit. Normally these kind of suits need to be closed at the bottom legs and sleeves in order to minimize skin particles dispersion.The financial funding from QREN, POFC, Vale Inovação Project Nº 2012/24228 is also gratefully acknowledged

The jeans in the popular brazilian panorama

In recent years the jeans industry in the Brazilian market has shown growth (3.9% per year) (SEBRAE 2013a) expansion of production (365.1 million pieces of jeans) (IEMI 2013) and commercialization, highlighting the popular markets (Oliveira and Braga 2015). This article presents an investigation about the production and commercialization practiced by Brazilian households production jeans, through the following methodological procedures: bibliographic rescue and direct observation (Saunders et al. 2011), visits to popular fashion centres in the regions of Southeast: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast: Agreste Pernambuco and Fortaleza, Ceará. The goal is to collect information that allows characterizing the modes of production and commercialization of the popular segment of women's jeans. The data collected demonstrated that in both regions the popular household enterprises, despite having manufacturing practices based on empirical knowledge, in precarious physical structures and equipment, workers are of the same family and/or neighbours, have shown positive economic income growth productivity and expansion in trade, the main selling point the fairs and shopping. Although this sector is relevant to the jeans segment in the Brazilian market, it has not been explored, highlighting the unprecedented aspect of this research in Brazil and even global context.I thank the Federal University of Piauí for giving opportunity the completion and conducting of this investigation. This work is supported by Portuguese National Funding, through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, on the framework of project UID/CTM/00264/2013

The omni-channel concept: a case study about the union of sales channels in Portugal

This article contributes to a better understanding of the omni-channel concept in fashion retail, more specifically, in the Portuguese footwear segment and understand if the current challenge of brands is based on the union of all sales channels in order to gain, to locate and to provide a perfect experience to their customers, having regard to the online world and the offline world. The methodology employed was the case study of two Portuguese footwear brands. The collection of data was obtained through two distinct and complementary tools: the semi-structured interview and indirect observation of how brands are moving in their sales channels. The data collected have concluded that there is a big discrepancy between the integration of brands' sales channels, one brand implements more strategies that aims to unify the channels compared to the other.This work was supported by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Program - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136

Thermo-physiological behavior of single use scrub suits using a thermal manikin

Publicação em forma de e-book. ISBN 978 605 338 084 9In operationg room, the health professionals are exposed to stress situations that can influence their physical and psychological performance. The thermal properties are an important requirement for the best performance of OR medical clothing, that plays a crucial role in thermal comfort of the user, that involve the regulation of heat and mass transfer between a clothed body and the environment. This study evaluates thermal comfort of medical clothing under specified conditions. Twelve types of non-woven single-use scrub suits were tested. The experiments were conducted on a thermal dry manikin that simulates human body to measure the heat loss from manikin surface and determine clothing thermal insulation The total clothing insulation, IT (m2.°C/W), is used to define the insulation from the skin surface to the environment. Thermal insulation of scrub suits show statisticaly significant differences between them. SS7 and SS9 have the the lower and higuer values of total isolation of 0.23 m2.°C/W and 0.14 m2.°C/W, respectively.The financial funding from QREN, POFC, Vale Inovação Project Nº 2012/24228 is also gratefully acknowledged