Term paper prepared for the class "MSE 430 - Introduction to Polymer Science", handed in at the 17th of April 1995.
Advisor: Prof. Karen I. Winey from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania.
Abstract:
Nowadays there is a wide variety of materials that are being used for surgical sutures. Nearly all of these materials are polymers, and most of those are synthetic products. The basic properties of those suture materials have to be compared in order to make the appropriate suture selection for a given type of wound closure, since there is not an ideal suture material that could be used under all circumstances in every operation. The principal division of the materials is into absorbable and nonabsorbable sutures, and each of these groups contains several materials with characteristic advantages and disadvantages.
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