Breaking strength and diameter of absorbable sutures after in vivo exposure in the rat.

Although absorbable sutures are commonly used in clinical practice, the rate of decay of strength in various tissues has not been studied. The purpose of this study was to assess breaking strength (BS) and diameter of monofilament (chromic gut, polydiaxanone, Maxon, Monocryl) and multifilament (Vicryl, Dexon, Polysorb) absorbable sutures implanted in various sites and measured at specific time intervals. A 15 cm length of 4-0 suture from a single lot of each material was implanted in the pleural space, rectus abdominus muscle, subcutaneous tissue, intravascular space, peritoneal cavity, and stomach lumen in the rat. A precipitous decrease in BS was noted in all multifilament sutures after 7 days, and in chromic gut and Monocryl sutures after 1 day. Polydiaxanone and Maxon sutures maintained the highest BS over the 28-day period, 71 per cent and 59 per cent of their initial BS, respectively. Suture diameter remained essentially unchanged except for chromic gut and the multifilament sutures which exhibited increased diameter. This increase was attributed to inflammatory tissue infiltration.