**1. Introduction**

As a result of the Covid-19 epidemic, the importance given to hygiene has increased in the world, thus the necessity of personal protective equipment (PPE) has come to the fore. The type of PPE that should be used in the health field varies depending on three factors:


An important part of PPE in the field of health; it forms surgical gowns that are worn by healthcare professionals to prevent the transfer of blood, body fluids and other potentially infectious materials and to help maintain the integrity of the sterile field. These gowns are the second most frequently used PPE item after gloves in this area [2–4].

Surgical gowns are defined by the United States (USA) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as: "Equipment intended to be worn by operating room staff during surgical procedures to protect both the surgical patient and operating room staff from the transfer of microorganisms and bodily fluids" [5]. Surgical gowns are the most important part of the surgical clothing system that covers a large part of the body, and besides protection, they also affect the comfort condition of the healthcare personnel and thus the operational success [6].

Surgical gowns have been used by healthcare professionals for more than a century. Although these gowns are considered the leading item of protective equipment today, surgical gowns and clothing were not used regularly in the surgical profession until the 1800s. At that time, surgeons performed their operations in an auditorium or amphitheater-style rooms, in rooms where the operation would be performed in the center and where the audience would sit in the surrounding seats. Surgeons typically wore street clothes and sometimes wore something similar to a butcher's apron to protect their clothes from stains. In fact, surgeons in those years typically performed surgeries with bare hands and non-sterile surgical instruments and supplies. In the late 1800s, after Joseph Lister's pioneering research, the carbolic acid solution was used to sterilize surgical instruments, surgical cuts and dressings to prevent gangrene and other infections. In 1867 he published numerous articles on "Antiseptic Surgery Practice" describing these procedures and also encouraged surgeons to wear clean gloves and wash their hands before and after surgery. However; surgical gowns and other protective equipment did not see wide use until much later. Advances in the knowledge of antisepsis and infection until the 1940s led to the use of antiseptic dressings and surgical gowns. In 1952, when William C. Beck warned the surgical circles that these gowns lost their bacterial barrier property while wet, researches on developing materials in this area increased.

Surgical gowns used from the late 19th century until the 1970s; It is made from a loosely woven, readily permeable, reusable fabric known as cotton muslin fabric. Three types of fabric were commonly used at that time. All-cotton muslin (140 thread muslin); it is a soft, absorbent, draped and highly porous, loosely woven fabric. Because it is easily permeable, this material does not have any liquid resistance properties. It also tends to wear easily and create lint. It is a blended layered (180 thread) polyester and cotton blend fabric that has a permanent print quality but otherwise performs similar to muslin. Finally, it is the first reusable fabric with a water-repellent chemical coating, a tightly woven cotton or polyester/cotton blend fabric (with 175–280 threads). However, with repeated washing cycles, it has been shown that resistance to liquid penetration is reduced in this fabric [7].

While initially worn surgical garments were white to emphasize cleanliness; the combination of bright lights, white rooms, and white clothing caused eye strain on surgeons and staff. For this reason, the use of white surgical gowns and other clothing used in the early days has been abandoned and hospitals have started to use various shades of green and blue surgical clothing. As surgical procedures progressed during the twentieth century, surgical garments saw more use and improvement, but the biggest increase in surgical garment use did not occur until the 1980s. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) [8] introduced a rule in 1991 to minimize the risk of healthcare workers acquiring blood-borne pathogens. This rule required employers to provide appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers. It is stated that the AIDS epidemic has a lot to do with this [9].
