By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    bowl of vegetable salad
    Raw Foods: benefits and harms
    November 9, 2021
    pros and cons of the keto diet
    Read This Before You Follow the Keto Diet
    May 18, 2022
    spinal cord injuries
    4 Potential Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries (and How to Seek Compensation)
    May 25, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    4 Reasons Why Medical Device Compliance Matters
    May 22, 2020
    What To Know About The Importance Of Healthcare Marketing
    November 23, 2019
    healthcare courses
    6 Supplemental Courses in Healthcare to Support Your HR Degree
    August 20, 2021
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Sutures, Staples and Other Fading Technologies
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Technology > Medical Innovations > Sutures, Staples and Other Fading Technologies
Medical Innovations

Sutures, Staples and Other Fading Technologies

PatrickDriscoll
Last updated: December 2, 2015 1:00 pm
PatrickDriscoll
Share
7 Min Read
SHARE

See Report #S192, “Worldwide Surgical Sealants, Glues, and Wound Closure Markets, 2013-2018”.

See Report #S192, “Worldwide Surgical Sealants, Glues, and Wound Closure Markets, 2013-2018”.

Sutures have been in use for potentially thousands of years, and staples for the last several decades. Both have frequently been the target of new development in wound closure and management, with competition in the form of advanced wound closure, whether surgical sealants, glues, hemostats, and even other mechanical wound closure. Novel wound closure technologies have decidedly gained enough credibility in clinical practice to displace volume in sutures and staples.

Sutures and Staples Are Not Fading…

More Read

SkinPut – A Touchscreen on Your Skin
Planning an Enterprise Archive (VNA) to Accommodate Collaboration in Precision Medicine
Clinton Applauds Carter Kostler (Age 14) at Health Matters Conference
Telomeres Point to New Osteoarthritis Therapies
Why Cosmetic Dentists Need Social Media

Manufacturers of sutures and staples have not sat idly and watched their share erode. Indeed, the development of bioresorbable sutures and other novel suture types, the development of sophisticated stapling and suturing endoscopic instrumentation and other developments have begun to erode the share loss. Consequently, the shift “away” from sutures and staples has ebbed, such that the aggregate swing in market shares is no more than 3% compared to the swing projected three years ago of nearly 7% (see link).

Sutures and Staples in Wound Closure (excerpt from Report #S192)

The vast majority of sutures, staples, and endostaples are used to close procedures involving acute surgical wounds. Typically, chronic wounds do not involve the use of sutures and staple products unless some degree of surgical intervention is employed to remove necrotic tissue or to create a new acute wound bed to aid healing.

Sutures are classified as absorbable or non-absorbable; monofilament, multifilament or braided; and natural or synthetic. Absorbable or non-absorbable describes the suture’s effective life within tissue. Absorbable sutures lose the majority of their tensile strength within 60 days after use. Non-absorbable sutures are resistant to living tissue and do not break down. Monofilament, multifilament, and braided describe the structure or configuration of the suture based on the number of strands used to manufacture the product. Natural or synthetic refers to the origin of the suture. Natural suture materials include surgical gut, chromic gut, catgut and silk. Catgut is made from the natural collagen fibers found in the intestine of sheep, goats, cattle, hogs and horses. (It was never made from the gut of cats.) It is debatable whether catgut should continue to be used for suturing wounds, since cotton is cheaper and cotton or synthetic threads are less likely to cause infection. Synthetic suture materials include nylon, polyester, stainless steel, polypropylene, polyglycolic acid (PGA), polyglycolide-co-caprolactone (PGCL), and polydioxanone.

Suture products consist of two component parts, the needle and the suture. These can be found in a wide range of sizes and types, made of a range of materials, and the method of attachment of the suture to the needle can involve a variety of methods. Sutures are divided into braided and monofilament categories. Braided sutures are typically more pliable than monofilament and exhibit better knot security. Monofilament sutures are wirier and may require a more secure knot; however, they cause less tissue drag than braided sutures, a characteristic that is especially important in cardiovascular, ophthalmic and neurological surgery

Stapler devices are an evolution of suture technology. The goal of stapler products is to avoid infection and make the wound closure procedure easier and faster.  Staples are made of stainless steel and biomaterials and are used to join internal tissues, reconstruct or seal off organs, remove diseased tissue, occlude blood vessels, and close skin incisions and lacerations. They are primarily used during surgery as internal and/or external closure devices.

Staples are available in an assortment of sizes and features and stapler devices have been developed for specific procedures as well as for multiple uses.

Internal staplers are used to approximate (or close) internal tissues and organs. The devices may be reusable or disposable. Some disposable staplers may be reloaded several times during the course of a single patient surgical procedure, before being discarded.

The most recent internal staplers are used to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures. These allow the surgeon to endoscopically secure internal wounds instead of having to operate through an open procedure. Moreover, internal biodegradable staples obviate the need for staple removal. Such staples are ideally suited to laparoscopic surgery and are delivered via procedure-specific laparoscopic instruments. However, most staples are still made of stainless steel and when used for internal stapling procedures, whether open or laparoscopic, are not removed after healing. Skin staples are removed after the incision is healed.

Probably the major benefit of staples is that they can be applied more rapidly than sutures and can be placed precisely without requiring the skill necessary for suturing. This also means increased safety for the patient, and patients can often be discharged more rapidly if procedures are stapled rather than sutured.

While cosmetically acceptable results are usually obtained, staplers normally are not used in highly visible areas such as the face. Here, surgeons will still close by hand to minimize any scarring. In many skin closure procedures, sutures have begun to be replaced by cyanoacrylate glues. However, the ideal alternative to suturing has not yet been developed; for example, cyanoacrylate glues used for external skin closure are only one-fifth as strong as sutures.

TAGGED:medical technologystaplessutureswound management
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share
By PatrickDriscoll
Follow:
I serve the interests of medical technology company decision-makers, venture-capitalists, and others with interests in medtech producing worldwide analyses of medical technology markets for my audience of mostly medical technology companies (but also rapidly growing audience of biotech, VC, and other healthcare decision-makers). I have a small staff and go to my industry insiders (or find new ones as needed) to produce detailed, reality-grounded analyses of current and potential markets and opportunities. I am principally interested in those core clinical applications served by medical devices, which are expanding to include biomaterials, drug-device hybrids and other non-device technologies either competing head-on with devices or being integrated with devices in product development. The effort and pain of making every analysis global in scope is rewarded by my audience's loyalty, since in the vast majority of cases they too have global scope in their businesses.Specialties: Business analysis through syndicated reports, and select custom engagements, on medical technology applications and markets in general/abdominal/thoracic surgery, interventional cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, patient monitoring/management, wound management, cell therapy, tissue engineering, gene therapy, nanotechnology, and others.

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Do You Grind Your Teeth at Night? Here’s How Night Guards and TMJ Treatments Can Help
Do You Grind Your Teeth at Night? Here’s How Night Guards and TMJ Treatments Can Help
Dental health
May 21, 2025
The Secret To A Confident Smile: Top Tips For Better Teeth
The Secret To A Confident Smile: Top Tips For Better Teeth
Dental health
May 21, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025

You Might also Like

health and technology
eHealthMedical DevicesMedical InnovationsTechnology

Technology and Healthcare Efficiency: Not Always the Perfect Match

June 21, 2014
gene mutations and dementia
Medical InnovationsNewsSpecialties

Gene Mutations That Cause Dementia and ALS Successfully Targeted in New Experiments

October 18, 2013

September 26-28 AdvaMed 2011

August 25, 2011
eHealthMedical Innovations

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Am I Healthy After All: Device Connectivity

September 27, 2012
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?