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Improving the therapeutic value of sutures

Abstract:

Material science searches for bioactive materials with the potential to replace the existing suture threads and tries to decrease the current disadvantages. This chapter describes the properties of current sutures and gives some advice on their uses depending on the suture type. Besides, it introduces some types of bioactive sutures, which are being studied as a potential alternative for wound care. In this regard, the use of mimetic structures, antimicrobial agents, and stimuli-responsive polymers stand out, because they can contribute to sutures in therapeutic value since they can promote tissue regeneration, give the capability of drug delivery or allow a self-adjusting behavior. All these properties represent significant advances in the development of new biomedical devices for better wound healing.