Summary
Bandages have a small share in medical textiles market but are very crucial in healthcare. Wound care costs are expected to accelerate as average age of population increases, increasing demand for bandages. Supply for bandages will increasingly come from China/Chinese companies as European markets have gradually ceded their market shares. An analysis.
Wound-care products made of textiles constitute a small part of the medical textiles market, however they are of tremendous significance in the healthcare sector. This is reflected in the overall spending in Medicare in the US on wound care (acute and chronic) estimated to range between $28.1 billion and $96.8 billion in 2018.1 This accounted for at most 12.1 per cent of the total medicare expenditure in US. Although this expenditure is unavoidable as appropriate wound management is an essential part of recovery of patients from chronic as well as acute ailments. However, research continues to make dressings and bandages more efficient with higher recovery rate at lower costs.
Bandages as we have all been exposed to, are a crucial part of wound management. They are used to hold a wound dressing in its place and come in several types such as triangular or cravat, roller and tailed bandages. Adhesive bandages, more commonly known as Band-aid in the market are much shorter strips of plastic/woven fabric/latex meant for smaller wounds/cuts. Bandages in general come with various properties such as anti-microbial, elastic vs non-elastic and in specialised shapes for particular parts of the body. Given that wound care is ubiquitous in medical treatment, bandages are an almost indispensable part of our lives.
The focus of this note is particularly bandages as the demand for this segment of medical textiles moves largely in relation to the average age of the population in a country and how healthcare expenditure is managed there. While, COVID-19 led to a sudden jump in overall healthcare supplies (also for bandages), the trend for many commodity groups may not have changed structurally and will likely continue as it was pre-COVID.