How To Choose The Most Suitable Medical Suture

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The ideal medical sutures are designed to break down harmlessly in the body or be removed without causing any tissue reactions.

The ideal medical sutures are designed to break down harmlessly in the body or be removed without causing any tissue reactions. Other than that, sutures must be easy to handle. The surgeon must never experience difficulty when tying knots. In essence, the suture is there to provide support until the tissue gains strength.

When choosing the right material for medical sutures, it is important to consider the support that is required. The suture support required will vary depending on the type of tissue you are dealing with. For instance, the muscle and skin tissues may need only a few days to gain strength whereas the tendon tissues might require weeks or even months to regain strength. Tissues which heal rapidly can be repaired using sutures with low tensile strength. However, the tissue must never react to the surgical suture. If this happens, the rate of healing will be slowed down and the chances of infection will increase.

Most surgeons select their surgical sutures with familiarity ...
... in mind. This is very subjective but can be excused since the surgeon will perform better with sutures which he/she has experience using. So long as the suture is of good quality and meets the acceptable standards, subjective preferences are allowed.Basically there are two types of surgical sutures, the absorbable and non absorbable sutures.

Absorbable sutures will break down harmlessly in the body. They are mainly placed internally to avoid reopening a wood when you use non absorbable sutures. However, regardless of the composition of the suture, they are still a foreign component being introduced to the body tissues. This is why the best material used to make absorbable sutures is any synthetic polymer. This material is simply broken down in the tissue fluid through hydrolysis. In other cases, the suture can be biologically digested if it already has a biological origin. A good example is a medical suture made from surgical gut.
On the other hand, non absorbable sutures must be removed or else they can cause complications. They are basically used externally for skin closures since they can be easily removed without reopening. They can be made from polyester, stainless steel and silk among other materials.

You can also have a specialized medical suture which is used in very unique surgical procedures. For instance, if the environment the suture is used will have a constant pressure movement such as the heart, you will need sutures made from a stronger material to provide enough support until the tissues regain strength. Environments in the body which will expose the suture to high levels of chemicals such as at the bladder also require specialized sutures. Most of these sutures are non absorbable in order to minimize the risk of degradation.

There are regulations that standardize the sizes, tensile strength and diameter of all sutures available in the market. A good surgical suture will have a small diameter but enough strength for the task at hand. Analyze your needs and select the suture that best suits those needs.
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