Suture Materials: Current and Emerging Trends

Sutures are special threads used in surgical procedures to enable closing and healing of surgical or trauma-induced wounds by upholding tissues together to facilitate healing process. Versatile suture materials are available for medical purpose. However, no single suture material is considered ideal for all situations, requiring clinicians to balance various properties when choosing a material for a particular application. Recent advancements have led to the development of new classes of suture materials, designed to enhance tissue approximation and wound closure. These advancements in suture technology including knotless barbed sutures, antimicrobial sutures, bioactive sutures such as drug-eluting and stem cells seeded sutures, and smart sutures. These newer strategies expand the versatility of sutures from being used as just a physical entity approximating opposing tissues to a more biologically active component enabling delivery of drugs and cells to the desired site with immense application potential in both therapeutics and diagnostics.