Sterilization effects on tensile strength of non-conventional suture materials as compared with nylon surgical suture

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to determine the tensile strength of embroidery, braiding, cobbler’s thread and nylon mono-filament fishing line (NMFL) use as non-conventional suture material. Their tensile strength were determined pre- sterilization using various calibrated weights (50gm, 100gm, 500gm). The non-conventional suture materials (NCS) were then subjected to different sterilization methods and tensile strength of the sterilized materials were determined using the same known weights. The procedure was repeated ten times on the NCS materials for each category and the mean tensile strength was determined for various sterilized material. The mean tensile strength of Miralene® was also determined using the above method of weight substitution. All data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare mean values within the sterilization groups with 95% confidence level (0.05). It was inferred that, mean tensile strength for cobbler’s thread increased for boiling and NMFL increases for autoclave and boiling method of sterilization (P<0.05). Also, mean tensile strength of NMFL and cobbler’s thread was significantly superior to that of Miralene®, and as such, it can be used as external suture in lieu of conventional suture materials.