Quantitative physical and handling characteristics of novel antibacterial braided silk suture materials

Surgical braided silk sutures have been widely used because these materials exhibit good handling characteristics, ease of use, and ideal knot security. However, surgical silk sutures likely cause surgical site infections because these sutures are composed of natural protein materials with a braided structure. As such, antibacterial silk sutures for clinical wound closure should be developed. Braided silk suture could be treated and modified with antibacterial agent, provided that excellent physical and handling characteristics of this material should maximize maintained. This study aimed to quantitatively investigate the effect of antibacterial treatment with different parameters on physical and handling characteristics of novel antibacterial braided silk sutures. Physical and handling characteristics, including appearance, knot-pull tensile strength, pullout friction resistance, tissue drag friction resistance, and bending stiffness, were evaluated. After physical and handling tests were conducted, images showed morphological characteristics were obtained and evaluated to investigate the relationship between antibacterial treatment and physical and handling properties. Results showed that suture diameter increased and reached the nearest thick size specification; knot-pull tensile strength decreased but remained higher than the standard value by at least 40.73%. Fracture asynchronism during knot-pull tensile strength test suggested that the fineness ratio of shell and core strands may enhance knot-pull tensile strength. Static and dynamic frictions of suture-to-suture friction behavior were slightly affected by antibacterial treatment, and changed to less than 16.07% and 32.77%, respectively. Suture-to-tissue friction and bending stiffness increased by approximately 50%; the bending stiffness of the proposed suture remained efficient compared with that of synthetic sutures. Therefore, good physical and handling characteristics can be maintained by selecting appropriate coating parameters.