Synthetic absorable sutures.

Based on the many reports published in the past several years, the synthetic absorbable sutures have been recognized as an important step forward in the history of suture materials. Synthetic absorbable sutures have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for almost all surgical uses with the exception of certain cardiovascular and neurologic surgical procedures in which nonabsorbable sutures are mandatory, as, for example, in the suturing of a prosthesis to tissue. They have been used in many thousands of surgical operations of many types and show prospects of replacing other absorbable suture materials traditionally used in surgical operations. Moreover, because of their retained strength and low tissue reactivity, the synthetic absorbable materials are being used in some procedures in place of nonabsorbable materials. Thus, instead of using several different suture materials during some operations, the surgeon may find himself using one synthetic absorbable suture in different sizes for an entire procedure.