[The influence of formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, high pressure on the tension of silk sutures].

120 pieces of silk suture (1# & 4#) were sterilized with formaldehyde at different time period. Group II and III each had 20 pieces and was disinfected with ethylene oxide or high pressure respectively. The tension of each silk suture was measured with tensomether. The result showed that there was no significant difference compared with the control groups (P > 0.05). This suggests that silk suture maintains the same tension in the experiments after repeated sterilization with formaldehyde, with ethylene oxide, or with highpressure sterilization once.