Background art Gel-forming fibres such as alginate fibres and carboxymethylated cellulose fibres are known. Wound dressings of various constructions containing such fibres have been marketed. Treatment of cavity wounds, including the use of dressings, is discussed by C P Berry in an article entitled "Cavity wound management"in J. Wound Care, 1993, vol. 2, no.

1, pp. 29-32 and by A Hallett in an article entitled"Cavity- Wound Management"in Nursing Times, 1995, vol. 91, no. 30, pp.

72,74 and 79. Dressings for packing cavity wounds are desirably flexible and conformable and capable of removal in one piece after use, without trauma to the patient and without leaving residual fragments of the dressing in the wound.

Alginate cavity wound dressings are recommended for moderately and heavily exuding wounds. Such dressings are commonly in the form of a textile sliver and consequently have low mechanical strength and integrity.

Needled nonwoven fabrics (needle-tacked or needle-punched fabrics, needlefelts) of alginate staple fibres have been marketed as wound dressings. Alginate fibres are weak fibres, particularly when wetted, and accordingly a balance must be struck between conflicting desires for mechanical strength and integrity (requiring high-intensity needling and/or high basis weight fabric) and for suppleness (reduced by high-intensity needling and/or the use of high basis weight fabric). If a dressing has poor mechanical strength, a secondary (backing) dressing may be employed; but this is time-consuming and adds

extra work and cost when the dressing is applied. Also, use of such secondary dressings is undesirable or inappropriate with dressings for cavity wounds. Alginate dressings having a backing layer affixed with adhesive are known, but they are unsuited for applications such as the treatment of cavity wounds.

WO-A-89/12471 discloses a pad of alginate fibres which have first and second cations (e. g. calcium sodium alginate) and the wetting of such pads prior to their use as wound dressings. The pad may be a needle-punched nonwoven fabric of staple fibre.

EP-A-0,344,913 discloses a hydroentangled fabric of alginate staple fibres and the use thereof as a wound dressing. At low basis weights (less than about 20 or 50 g/m2), the fabric preferably includes a small percentage of reinforcing fibre such as rayon to permit it to be handled easily while saturated with saline water.

EP-A-0,476,576 discloses a nonwoven fabric of alginate staple fibres made by a modified needle-tacking process, in which the leading barb of the needles penetrates into a mat of fibres to a depth of from about 60 to about 99% of the thickness of the mat. These fabrics are said to find use as wound dressings.

US-A-5,674,524 discloses an alginate dressing having an integral non-alginate backing layer. A web of alginate staple fibre and a backing layer are brought together and needle- punched to yield a composite dressing. Examples are given of a fibrous backing layer which is an acrylic/cotton continuous backing or is an elastic polyurethane foam.

Disclosure of the invention According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a fabric which comprises first and second webs. of gel-forming fibre needled to the first and second sides

respectively of a textile fibre scrim. The first and second webs may be of the same or different fibres and of the same or different basis weights; but they are preferably of the same fibre and basis weight.

Examples of gel-forming fibre for use in the fabric of the invention include carboxymethylcellulose fibres and in particular alginate fibres such as calcium alginate fibres and calcium sodium alginate fibres. The basis weight of each web of gel-forming fibre is preferably in the range from 50 to 250 g/m2 often around 100 g/m2. The titre of the fibres is preferably in the range from 1 to 5 dtex. Each web may consist of a single type of gel-forming fabric or comprise more than one type of gel-forming fibre.

The gel-forming fibre may be a carboxymethylcellulose fibre having a degree of substitution of at least 0.1 carboxymethyl group per glucose unit, the fibre being derived from solvent-spun cellulose fibre and having an absorbency of at least 8 grams 0.9k (by weight) saline solution measured by the free-swell method and having a tenacity of at least 10 cN/tex. Such fibres are disclosed in WO 93/12275, to which reference may be made for further details.

The textile fibre scrim may be a woven or knitted fabric, but it is preferably a nonwoven fabric, more preferably a thermally-bonded nonwoven fabric of thermoplastic fibres.

Examples of suitable thermoplastic fibres include polyamide, polyester and polypropylene. A woven or knitted or non-bonded nonwoven fabric preferably consists of continuous filament yarn to minimise the possibility of textile fibres becoming detached and remaining behind on removal from a wound. Other types of nonwoven fabric may also advantageously consist of continuous filament yarn; in particular, a thermally spunbonded fabric may be used. The basis weight of the scrim is preferably in the range from 20 to 80, more preferably from 30 to 50, g/m2. The scrim should be suitable for medical applications, be susceptible to conventional sterilisation

procedures such as exposure to ethylene oxide or to electron- beam or gamma-ray irradiation and be suitable for subjection to a needling process.

The fabrics of the invention are useful as wound dressings. The fabrics of the invention have the advantage that their major surfaces consist of gel-forming fibre, so that when they are used as a dressing essentially only the gel-forming fibre comes into contact with the wound.

The fabrics of the invention or one or more components thereof may be medicated.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a nonwoven fabric according to the first aspect of the invention, which method comprises needling together in the specified order a first web of gel- forming fibres, a textile fibre scrim, and a second web of gel-forming fibres. The webs of gel-forming fibres may be prepared by conventional carding and cross-lapping equipment and techniques, and the fabric may be formed using conventional needle-punching equipment and techniques.

When a web consisting of gel-forming fibre is needled, it is often found that the basis weight of the needled fabric is less than that of the web; i. e. the web stretches during needling and there is a concurrent reduction in width. This may cause difficulties in process control. The method of the invention has the advantage that little or no such stretching occurs.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a wound dressing which comprises a fabric according to the first aspect of the invention. For treatment of cavity wounds, the dressing is preferably in the form of a ribbon of width in the range from 0.5 to 5 cm, further preferably provided for use in roll form. The ability to produce narrow ribbons, preferably of width in the range from 0.5 to 2 cm,

or from 0.5 to 1 cm, of good mechanical strength is advantageous, because such a ribbon is useful in packing narrow cavity wounds (e. g. a sinus or fistula). The linear weight of such a ribbon may be in the range from 30 to 100 g/m (about 1-3 g/30 cm), which is comparable to that of alginate sliver known as a dressing for packing cavity wounds. We have found that ribbons of conventional needlefelt made of gel- forming fibre having width less than about 2.5 cm tend to be weak when wetted, whereby there is an undesirable risk that they will break during removal from a wound.

The invention is illustrated by the following Examples, in which parts and proportions are by weight unless otherwise specified:- Example 1 A comparative fabric sample was made in conventional manner by needling together three cross-laid carded webs of calcium alginate staple fibre (fibre 2.5 dtex, 50 mm staple length, available from Akzo Nobel UK Ltd, formerly Courtaulds plc; web basis weight 135 g/m2; fabric basis weight 330 g/m2).

Samples of fabric according to the invention were made by laying-up cross-laid carded webs of the same alginate staple fibre (nominal basis weight 100 g/m2) either side of a spunbonded (thermally-bonded continuous filament) polyester or polyamide fabric (scrim) (nominal basis weight 50 g/m2; available from Lantor (UK) Ltd.) and needling the assembled webs and fabric together. The intensity of needling was lower than in the comparative sample. The fabrics were cut into 30x2 cm strips suitable for use in packing cavity wounds. Fabric absorbency was measured by the method described in British Pharmacopoeia 1993, Addendum 1995, page 1706 for Alginate Packing using 5 x 2 cm samples. Other physical properties were measured in conventional manner. The results are presented in Table 1: Table 1 Sample Alginate Alginate/Alginate/ (comparative) Polyester Polyamide Basis weight g/m2 330 (14) 255 (9) 271 (10) Thickness mm 4.7 (0.2) 3.9 (0.1) 3.8 (0.2) Tensile strength 8.0 (0. 9) 5.4 (1.0) 27.9 (1.6) (dry) N/cm Tensile strength 3.5 (0.3) 7.6 (0.7) 22.6 (2.5) (wet) N/cm Absorbency g/g 10.0 (0.9) 13.3 (0.5) 12.9 (0.6) Absorbency g/lOOcm2 33.0 (1.3) 33.0 (1.0) 34.2 (l. i) All measurements were averages of ten tests. The two series of absorbency measurements were made on different samples. The values in parentheses represent standard deviations.

The absorbency of a carded sliver of the alginate fibre (linear weight 6.6 g/m) was 15 g/g.

The fabrics of the invention were markedly less stiff, softer and more supple than the comparative sample. The fabrics of the invention were markedly stronger than the comparative sample, particularly when wet. The strength of the alginate/polyamide fabric surpassed likely requirements. The fabrics of the invention were of appreciably higher absorbency on weight basis than the comparative fabric, despite the fact that the fabrics of the invention contained about 20% of hydrophobic fibre. The fabrics of the invention and the comparative fabric were of similar absorbency on area basis, despite the facts that the weight per unit area of the fabrics of the invention was about 20% lower than that of the comparative fabric and that the weight of alginate per unit area in the fabrics of the invention was about 40% lower than in the comparative fabric.

Example 2 A fabric according to the invention was made by laying-up cross-laid carded and needled webs of carboxymethylcellulose fibre (2.2 dtex, 25 mm, D. S. 0.4; web nominal basis weight 100

g/m2; according to W093/12275; HYDROCEL, Trade Mark of Akzo Nobel UK Ltd, formerly Courtaulds plc) either side of a spunbonded fabric (nominal basis weight 40 g/m2 ; polypropylene; available from Freudenberg Nonwovens) and needling the assembled webs and fabric together. The results shown in Table 2 were obtained: Table 2 Basis weight g/m2 233 (8) Thickness mm 3.4 (0.2) Tensile strength (dry) N/cm 27.7 (2.6) Tensile strength (wet) N/cm 15.4 (1.8) Absorbency g/g 12.4 (0.3) Absorbency g/100 cm2 28.9 (0.5) All measurements were averages of ten tests. The values in parentheses represent standard deviations.