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Bacterial adhesion to braided surgical sutures: an in vitro study

  • Experimental Study
  • Published:
European Journal of Plastic Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Surgical suture materials are accepted to be associated with a substantial proportion of surgical site infections. These infections are related with biofilm formation similar to that of other synthetic and implantable medical devices.

Methods

We conducted an in vitro study to investigate the bacterial adherence to different types of braided surgical sutures. The included sutures were polyglactin (Vicryl®) group (VG), rapidly absorbable polyglactin (Rapide-Vicryl®) group (RVG), nitrofurazone-coated polyglactin (Vicryl®) group (FVG), polyethylene terephthalate (Etibond®) group (EG), and natural silk (Silk®) group (SG). All sutures were cut in 1 cm length, embedded into tryptic soy broth, and then 106-CFU/ml Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were added. After the 24th and 96th hour of incubation, bacterial colonies were counted, and results were expressed as CFU/cm.

Results

E.coli adhesion was significantly lower in VG and significantly higher in SG compared to FVG, RVG, and EG at the 24th and 96th hour of cultivation (p < 0.05). The S.aureus adhesion results at 24th hour showed that VG had the least bacterial adhesion, and FVG had the most bacterial adhesion compared to other sutures (p < 0.05). The S.aureus adhesion results at the 96th hour of cultivation showed that bacterial adhesion on sutures was not significantly different between groups (p > 0.05).

Conclusion

Of all braided surgical sutures, bacterial adhesion is significantly lower in polyglactin and significantly higher in silk sutures. Nitrofurazone coverage of suture worsens S.aureus contamination of the suture.

Level of Evidence: Not ratable

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    Özlem Boybeyi

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey

    Birgül Kaçmaz & Serdar Gül

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey

    Yasemin Dere Günal & Mustafa Kemal Aslan

  4. Faculty of Science, Department of Statistics, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey

    Serap Yörübulut

Authors
  1. Özlem Boybeyi
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  2. Birgül Kaçmaz
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  3. Yasemin Dere Günal
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  4. Serdar Gül
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  5. Serap Yörübulut
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  6. Mustafa Kemal Aslan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Özlem Boybeyi.

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Conflict of interest

Özlem Boybeyi, Birgül Kaçmaz, Yasemin Dere Günal, Serdar Gül, Serap Yörübulut, Mustafa Kemal Aslan declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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There was no funding received for this work.

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Boybeyi, Ö., Kaçmaz, B., Günal, Y.D. et al. Bacterial adhesion to braided surgical sutures: an in vitro study. Eur J Plast Surg 39, 1–6 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-015-1171-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-015-1171-5

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