New Knotless Sutures Afford Greater Surgical Efficiency

The sutures offer unique advantages over traditional knotted sutures by providing more strength and security, higher consistency, and more efficiency than traditional suturing, enabling surgeons to more easily manage tension and control tissue approximation with each pass during closure, and most importantly, eliminating the need to tie knots.

The sutures are available in both a bidirectional and unidirectional design, with an adjustable fixation loop, and are made of proprietary polymers and premium needles to provide a smooth glide through tissue. A triclosan antibacterial coating reduces surgical site infection (SSI) risk. The Spiral Monocryl Plus sutures have a duration of two weeks, ideal for closing skin. For deeper layers, such as such as fat and muscle, the PDS Plus sutures are recommended, with a longer expected duration of about six weeks. The Stratafix knotless sutures are products of Ethicon Endo-Surgery (Ethicon; Cincinnati, OH, USA).

“For certain patients and certain procedures that last straw that breaks the camel’s back, in other words that tips them in favor of having an infection, might be the bacterial colonization of the suture,” said Liza Ovington, franchise medical director at Ethicon. “So we offer this antibacterial coating, which is a highly purified form of antibacterial called triclosan that prevents bacteria from taking hold and colonizing that suture and getting a foothold to start an infection that will impact that patient.”

“By eliminating the knot, the Stratafix sutures save valuable time for the surgeons, benefitting patients,” said gynecological surgeon James Dana Kondrup, MD. “All you have to do is suture, suture, suture; and so you’re doing a continuous stitch, putting tension on the stitch and suturing it, and putting tension so you tighten up a little bit. And essentially the next thing you know, you’re done. And you don’t have to go back and tie anything, so that’s really important.”

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Ethicon Endo-Surgery