Suture technique and wound-bursting strength.

Despite advances in wound healing, fascial dehiscence continues to be a problem in celiotomy wounds. Experimental and clinical studies on suture material and on patient-related factors in wound disruption are abundant, but little attention has been given to mechanical factors in wound closure, although they may be of greater importance. A midline abdominal wound was made in 120 Harlan Sprague-Dawley rats, and the fascia was closed with Dacron in one of six ways: simple interrupted, interrupted figure-of-eight, and running, each tied loosely in one half of each group and tightly in the other half. One week later, the rats were reanesthetized and wound-bursting strength was measured. In general, the running suture technique resulted in the greatest wound-bursting pressures. A loosely tied figure-of-eight technique was nearly as good as a loosely tied running stitch, but tying figure-of-eight sutures tightly caused a significant decrease in wound-bursting pressure. The simple interrupted technique was unaffected by suture tension but was generally inferior to the running stitch in terms of wound-bursting strength. Histologic studies were performed, but most of the disparity in wound strength among the suture techniques apparently was due solely to mechanical factors. Closing midline abdominal fascial wounds with a running suture may be a superior method of closure in clean, incised wounds.