ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an organized overview of commercially available suture materials in terms of the commonly used classification: absorbability in biological tissues, size, physical configuration, type of coating materials used to facilitate handling properties, and the four major characteristics of suture materials and their performance. Suture materials are also classified according to their size. Two standards are used to describe the size of suture materials: United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) and European Pharmacopoeia (EP). In terms of the physical configuration of suture materials, they can be classified into monofilament, multifilament, twisted, and braided. Suture materials are frequently coated to facilitate their handling properties, particularly a reduction in dssue drag when passing through the needle tract and the ease of sliding knots down the suture during knotting. Handling characteristics describe those properties that relate to the "feel" of suture materials by surgeons during wound closure. A systematic classification of suture materials based on absorbability, size, physical form, and coating materials is described.
