[Duration of wound healing and tissue resistance as important criteria for selecting suture materials in colon...

The modern absorbable suture materials are well introduced in colonic surgery. Surgeon's intension is to reduce foreign body reactions by using small sized sutures and will be limited by the suture holding capacity of the tissue. Suture holding capacity of the human colon is about 9 +/- 2 N. Wound healing of colon anastomoses normally lasts 10 to 12 days. The braided absorbable suture materials Dexon, Dexon plus and Vicryl (size 3-0 USP) have a knot breaking strength of about 10 N after 12 days implantation in the human colon, the monofilament absorbable sutures PDS and Maxon have about 20 N resting strength after implantation. These results document that the size 3-0 USP (2-metric) should be the lowest limit for the braided absorbable suture materials used in colonic surgery.