What is Suture? What are the Types of Sutures

Suture is the surgical material and surgical thread used with the help of needles in order to restore the damaged tissue due to various reasons. The word “Souture” in French has evolved into our Turkish as “Suture”. The French word “Souture” means “sewing” in French. In the medical literature, the meaning of this word is settled as surgical suture.

There are many different types of sutures, understanding these features allows for the ideal stitch selection. The main factors used to classify suture types are: Absorbable and non-absorbable, Synthetic and natural, and Monofilament / multifilament

The first major category of sutures are absorbable and non-absorbable sutures. These sutures are considered absorbable if the threads lose most of their tensile strength over a period of several weeks to several months. Absorbable sutures are generally used in deep wound closure processes until the tissues have healed. In this way, they are useful for approaching the edges of tissue layers, suturing and closing deep gaps or imperfections, and facilitating wound healing as part of a multilayer wound closure. If they are used superficially, there may be an increased risk of inflammation and hence a greater risk of injury. If absorbable suture is used, it is recommended to use a fast absorbent suture.

Absorbable sutures can also be classified as natural and synthetic sutures. Natural sutures are obtained from purified animal tissues (usually collagen). There are varieties made from purified serosa of bovine intestine. Silk and catgut (a special thread made of intestines made from sheep submucosa, used to stitch the surgery site or wounds.) is a kind of natural suture. Natural sutures differ from synthetic sutures in that they are destroyed by proteolysis (if absorbable like catgut) and synthetic sutures are destroyed by hydrolysis.

Long-term tissue closure such as non-absorbable sutures, vascular anastomosis (connection or opening between two things that normally deviate or branch, such as blood vessels, leaf veins or currents), internal tubular structures or permanently connecting vessels, used for bowel operations, covering hernia fascia defects and other uses. In our next blog post, we will continue to examine other suture types.

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