Complications of exposed monofilament sutures

Exposed monofilament suture ends caused a variety of symptoms and signs in 18 patients. These included foreign-body sensation, pain, contact lens intolerance, giant papillary conjunctivitis, tarsal ulceration, conjunctival granuloma, corneal infiltrate, and corneal vascularization. These changes followed cataract surgery, corneal transplantation, and pars plana vitrectomy. Diagnoses in these cases were made by careful slit-lamp examination and by eversion of the upper eyelid. In every case, removal of the sutures or trimming the suture ends resulted in the immediate relief of all symptoms with complete resolution of all signs within two months.