ISSN:
1045-4861
Keywords:
Chemistry
;
Polymer and Materials Science
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Medicine
,
Technology
Notes:
The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of the newly available monofilament polypropylene suture (Surgipro) manufactured by U.S. Surgical and compared it with commercial Prolene sutures for determining the merit of this new suture. Two different sizes of Surgipro sutures were esused. They were 4/0 and 0 sizes and were tested in terms of their fundamental properties: level of crystallinity, melting temperature, fiber morphology, and mechanical properties including knot strength and knot security. The effect of three different sterilization methods on the mechanical and fundamental properties of the new polypropylene (PP) sutures was also examined. In general, the new Surgipro sutures performed as good as Prolene sutures in terms of mechanical properties; but there were some differences in fundamental properties between these two types of PP sutures, particularly in finer size PP sutures. The major differences were in interior fiber morphology, level of crystallinity, and melting temperature. Surgipro suture fibers showed homogeneous interior morphology, while Prolene fibers exhibited two distinctive fiber morphologies. These two types of PP suture fibers also responded differently to the three sterilization methods tested. Surgipro sutures are less affected by different sterilization methods than the same size Prolene control. Except for the Co60 gamma sterilization, Surgipro suture fibers did not exhibit statistically significant differences in tensile breaking strength between sterilized and control. Ethylene oxide and autoclave sterilized Prolene suture fibers, however, showed statistically (p 〈 0.05) consistently lower tensile breaking strength than their unsterilized controls. One should be aware of the fact that suture manufacturers are constantly improving their manufacturing processes. The difference between these two types of PP suture fibers may disappear in the future. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Additional Material:
12 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jab.770040209
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