You may at times hurt yourself with a deep wound or any injury that the tissues tear apart and leave your skin open. To treat and close such wounds, doctors use a thread and needle to stitch your wound and such a stitch is known as a suture. Thus, sutures are truly a gift from the field of medicine to mankind that helps your tissues to regrow faster and heal the wound. There are different materials available for suturing an intense injury. The doctor chooses the most appropriate depending on your wound. Silk braided non-absorbable sutures are one among the various types. Here, we shall discuss the various types of sutures.
TYPES OF SUTURES
ABSORBABLE SUTURES
GUT: This is a natural monofilament suture that is used for repairing internal soft tissues. It cannot be used for cardiovascular or neurological procedures as our body has the strongest reaction for these and often they have scars over them. They best suit gynecological surgeries.
POLIGLECAPRONE: It is a synthetic monofilament suture that is also used to repair soft skin tissues. They are more likely to be used when the skin is to be closed invisibly. However, it can also not be used for cardiovascular or neurological procedures.
POLYDIOXANONE: It is a synthetic monofilament suture that is used to repair many soft tissue wounds even abdominal closures as well as pediatric cardiac procedures.
POLYGLACTIN: This is a synthetic braided suture that is very apt for repairing hand or facial lacerations. But, it is not suitable for cardiovascular and neurological procedures and therefore should not be used for the same.
NON ABSORBABLE SUTURES
These types of sutures are used to generally repair soft tissues and can be used for both cardiovascular as well as neurological procedures. Following are the types of non-absorbable sutures.
NYLON: A monofilament suture that is natural and can be used in severe surgeries of the brain as well as heart.
POLYPROPYLENE: It is a synthetic monofilament suture.
SILK: A natural braided suture.
POLYESTER: A braided synthetic suture.
Apart from absorbable sutures that are digested in the body due to the presence of certain enzymes in the tissues, and non-absorbable tissues that are required to be removed by a doctor after a certain period, there are different sutures on basis of the structure of material such as monofilament that comprises of a single thread that allows the suture to easily pass through the tissue. The other one is the braided sutures that consist of several small threads braided together. They ensure more security, but at the same time, increase the chances of infection. Black braided silk surgical sutures are one of these types of sutures. In addition to this, sutures can be classified either as natural or synthetic.
Much often, sutures and stitches are used interchangeably. But it must be noted that a suture is a name given to the actual medical device that is used to repair the wound. As there are different types of sutures, there are also different techniques that can be used to stitch your wound.
