Wound closure is an i...

The gross tissue reactivity, bacterial load counts and clinical parameters were investigated following the use of cotton hair thread (CHT) and silk suture on surgically induced wounds on rabbits. Twelve clinically healthy male rabbits of New Zealand breed were used. They were acclimatized for two weeks and randomly assigned into three groups A, B and C of four (4) rabbits each. A 6 cm long paralumber skin incision was aseptically performed in both groups of animals using xylazine and ketamine. The incised skin wounds in groups A and B rabbits were apposed with conventional silk and cotton hair thread (CHT) sutures respectively while no surgery was performed in the group C rabbits. The sutured sites in the groups (A and B) were evaluated for both bacterial load counts and gross features: swelling, erythema and percentage suture breakage and scored at post-surgical days (psd) 1, 7, 10, 14 and 21. Clinical vital signs: heart and respiratory rates and temperature were evaluated in the three groups before (day 0) and during the above psd. The means of the bacterial load counts, clinical vital parameters demonstrated no statistical significance (p> 0.05) in the study. There was no significan