Antimicrobial suture material shows promise as alternative for mesh implants

According RMIT University, Australia, surgical site infections are one of the most common medical infections, occurring in two to four per cent of patients post-surgery. For some procedures, including vaginal mesh implants to treat prolapse, infection rates can be higher.

Study lead author and Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, Dr Shadi Houshyar, said their suture was being developed in partnership with clinicians specifically for this type of procedure.

“Our smart surgical sutures can play an important role in preventing infection and monitoring patient recovery and the proof-of-concept material we’ve developed has several important properties that make it an exciting candidate for this,” said Houshyar, from the School of Engineering at RMIT. The team’s findings have been published in OpenNano.

Lab tests on the surgical filament showed it was easily visible in CT scans when threaded through samples of chicken meat, even after three weeks. It also showed strong antimicrobial properties, killing 99 per cent of highly drug-resistant bacteria after six hours at body temperature.