Defining the physical structure and properties in novel monofilaments with potential for use as absorbable surgical sutures based on a lactide containing block terpolymer

Review Paper: Absorbable Polymeric Surgical Sutures: Chemistry, Production, Properties, Biodegradability, and Performance

Among biomaterials used as implants in human body, sutures constitute the largest groups of materials having a huge market exceeding $1.3 billion annually. Sutures are the most widely used materials in wound closure and have been in use for many centuries. With the development of the synthetic absorbable polymer, poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) in the early 1970s, a new chapter has opened on absorbable polymeric sutures that got unprecedented commercial successes. Although several comparative evaluations of suture materials have been published, there were no serious attempts of late on a comprehensive review of production, properties, biodegradability, and performance of suture materials. This review proposes to bring to focus scattered data on chemistry, properties, biodegradability, and performance of absorbable polymeric sutures.

Novel microwave-assisted synthesis of poly(D,L-lactide): the influence of monomer/initiator molar ratio on the product properties

Poly(D,L-lactide) synthesis using tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate initiated ring-opening polymerization (ROP) takes over 30 hours in bulk at 120 °C. The use of microwave makes the same bulk polymerization process with the same initiator much faster and energy saving, with a reaction time of about 30 minutes at 100 °C. Here, the poly(lactide) synthesis was done in a microwave reactor, using frequency of 2.45 GHz and maximal power of 150 W. The reaction temperature was controlled via infra-red system for in-bulk-measuring, and was maintained at 100 °C. Different molar ratios of monomer and initiator, [M]/[I], of 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 were used. The achieved average molar masses for the obtained polymers (determined by gel permeation chromatography) were in the interval from 26,700 to 112,500 g/mol. The polydispersion index was from 2.436 to 3.425. For applicative purposes, the obtained material was purified during the procedure of microsphere preparation. Microspheres were obtained by spraying a fine fog of polymer (D,L-lactide) solution in tetrahydrofuran into the water solution of poly(vinyl alcohol) with intensive stirring.

Layer-by-layer deposition of polymeric microgel films on surgical sutures for loading and release of ibuprofen

Surgical sutures capable of drug loading and sustained release are important in wound healing applications. In this work, a facile way to incorporate anti-inflammatory drug of ibuprofen in surgical sutures has been established. First, surgical sutures were deposited with multilayer films containing microgels of chemically cross-linked poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and dextran (named PAH-D) by layer-by-layer deposition of PAH-D and hyaloplasm acid (HA). Ibuprofen was then incorporated in the PAH-D/HA films to obtain ibuprofen-loaded sutures. Ibuprofen incorporated in the surgical sutures can be released in 0.9% normal saline in a sustainable way. The successful incorporation of ibuprofen in surgical sutures depends largely on PAH-D microgels, which can deposit directly on the hydrophobic surgical sutures without any surface modification and load ibuprofen based on electrostatic interaction between them. The present study provides a facile and generally applicable way to incorporate drugs in surgical sutures that is highly useful to accelerate the healing of cuts and wounds.