All you wanted to know about Surgical Suture types!

Posted by dunitzsantrino on February 27th, 2015

Sutures also known as stitches, are sterile surgical threads which are used to repair cuts or lacerations. They are also used to close incisions from a surgery. Suture is commonly a medical device that embalmers especially surgeons, doctors use to hold the skin during surgery, internal organs, blood vessels and all other tissues of human body together, once they have been severed by incision, injury or surgery. They can be bought from a good suture distributor.

Surgical suture closure like other methods of wound closure creates an opportunity for wound healing. Tissues are held together until complete healing occurs to withstand stress without any mechanical support. Sutures are many kinds with different properties suitable for various uses.

Sutures are classified broadly into two groups; absorbable sutures and non-absorbable sutures. An absorbable suture eventually breaks down in the tissue after a period of time. It further degrades once the incision or wound heals. A non-absorbable suture on the other hand resists the body’s attempt to dissolve it and they are usually removed by the surgeon after the surface incision has healed completely.

Sutures must be non-toxic, strong so that they do not break and hypoallergenic i.e. should not cause any adverse reactions in the body. They should be flexible so that they can be tied and knotted easily. Sutures in addition to all the above, must lack the so called “wick effect” which means that they should not allow fluids to penetrate into the body through them from outside which could cause infections.

Internal sutures would require re-opening if they were to be removed. External sutures which lie on the outside of the body can be removed easily within minutes without re-opening the wound. Due to this reason absorbable sutures are placed internally and non-absorbable are placed externally.

Sutures are often supplied by suture companies which supply sutures to a suture distributor who can be contacted for supplying sutures to hospitals. Especially sutures which are to be placed in a stressful environment like the heart or the bladder might require specialized or stronger materials to perform their function; usually these kind of sutures are either specially treated, or made of special materials and mostly are non-absorbable to reduce the risk of degradation. These are made to order from a good suture company.

Sutures also can be divided into two types based on the material structure, i.e. multifilament or braided sutures and monofilament sutures. Better knot security is provided by braided sutures whereas monofilament sutures are for providing better passage through the tissues. Compared to braided sutures, monofilament sutures in general elicit lower tissue reaction. Multifilament or braided sutures are often coated with various materials like wax, PTFE, silicone, polycaprolactone and calcium stearate etc.

Lastly, it is a good idea to get them ordered from a good suture company or a renowned suture distributor so that there is no compromise with the quality of sutures.