A Systematic Review of the Tensile Strength of Surgical Sutures

Abstract

Suturing the wound provides temporary mechanical support enabling natural tissue healing. Understanding the inherent material properties of the suture materials facilitates clinical adjustments in the rate of degradation to ensure proper wound healing. This review aimed to summarize the analysis of the factors that contribute to the tensile strength of surgical sutures and the implications of these factors in wound healing. Our initial search criteria used keywords Tensile or Strength or suture material and returned 494 potentially related articles, these were narrowed to just seven key articles pertaining to the analysis of the primary outcome variable which are reviewed in detail here. The physical properties of these materials are substantially affected by the biological conditions of the model system during the period of analysis. Nevertheless, under in vivo conditions decisions on suture materials should take comorbidities like dietary habits, smoking, oral hygiene maintenance into account as they can all have a significant impact on the prevailing physiological conditions at the wound site.