The use of surgical drapes is one of great importance, helping prevent contact with surfaces that should be avoided and to maintain a certain level of sterilization within certain environments such as the surgical room. Without it, the risks involved increases greatly as bacteria and viruses become a threat to the open wound or surgical opening made during an operation. It's very common to see surgical drapes within hospitals and clinics, a necessity for them to ensure that patients won't be at a greater risk than they already are by reducing chances of transmission of pathogens between patients and surgical staff.  The surgical drapes are either one time use or multiple with both sharing similar characteristics such as being resistant to liquids to disallow any penetrating it. Materials used depends on if it's one time use or not, with the multiple use ones usually made from tightly woven textiles or knitted cotton.

Importance of quality

With the sensitive operations they are often used in, the need for surgical drapes to be of high quality regardless of whether they're one time use or not is important as it can otherwise have very serious and outright life threatening consequences for the patient. Not only from the potential threat from pathogens but liquids, mainly blood, getting in the way and making the surgery more difficult for the surgeon in question. Clinicals will always have drapes in stock and often order from manufacturers they can trust to make the high quality products that they need.​​