Types of Suture Materials: Properties, Classification, and Clinical Applications

Types Of Suture Material

Describe brief suture materials.

Answer. Suture materials are used to hold the several tissues in close approximation.

Properties of an ideal Suturing Material

• Suturing Material should produce less tissue reaction.
• There should be adequate strength of suture material to withstand stress.
• Suturing Material should be easily sterilized.
• Suturing Material is easy to handle within the tissues.
• Suturing Material should have good knot tying properties.
• Suturing Material should have less capillary action.

Classification of Suture Materials

• Based on the degradation of material within the tissues:
  • Absorbable
  • Non-absorbable
• Based on the source of materials:
  • Natural, e.g. silk
  • Synthetic, e.g. polyglycolic acid
  • Metallic, e.g. stainless steel
• Based on the number of filaments in the suture material:
  • Monofiament
  • Multifiament
  • Pseudomonofiament
• Based on the diameter of the thread in cross-section:
  • 1 – 0 to 10 – 0. With an increase in number of zeros,diameter of material reduces
• Based on the coating applied on the material:
  • Teflon coated
  • Chromic coated, etc.

Description Of Suturing Materials

Absorbable Materials

• They loose their strength into the tissues and degrades under 60 days, e.g. catgut, polyglycolic acid, polyglactin 910 (Vicryl), polydioxanone, polyglecaprone, poly trimethylene carbonate, Polyglytone 6211, etc.
• These sutures undergo enzymatic degradation by natural enzymes present in the body.
• They are used in deep layer suturing and suturing of wounds in patient who do not come for removal of sutures.

Non-Absorbable Suture Materials

• They are not degraded by the body.
• Suture removal has to be done after end of healing phase.
• Examples are silk, nylon and polyester.

Monofiament Suture Material

• It is known as monofilament as they are made up of single strand.
• They produce the advantage of least capillary effct.
• They decrease the chances of infection.
• Examples: In monofiament absorbable is monocryl and non – absorbable is polyamide, polyester, etc.
• They have major disadvantage of memory effect due to which material come to its original position and this leads to loosening of knot.

Multifiament Suture Material

• Suturing Material is known as multifiament as it is made up of multiple thin strands of suture material which are either rolled,twisted or braided together to form uniform strand of thread.
• They are easy to handle and have good knot tying properties.
• Knot placed cannot get slipped.
• They are used at places where good strength is needed to hold the wound edges together.
• Suturing Material has more capillary action and can act as source of infection.
• Example is black braided silk.

Pseudomonofiament

• This suture material is made up of numerous strands of fier which are processed by twisting, grinding and polishing to produce a monofiamentous appearance.
• Example is catgut.

Based on diameter of thread in Cross-section

• Suture materials are labeled from 1 – 0 to 10 – 0.
• With an increase in number of zeros, diameter of material reduces.
  • 10 – 0: is used for microsurgery repair
  • 5 – 0, 6 – 0: suturing for skin on face
  • 4 – 0, 5 – 0: used for suturing in extremities
  • 3 – 0: For scalp sutures
  • 3 – 0, 4 – 0: commonly used in most of the oral surgical procedures.