The Antimicrobial Efficacy Study of Pretreated Antimicrobial Silk Suture

The Antimicrobial Efficacy Study of Pretreated Antimicrobial Silk Suture is a published article of the Textile Technology department.In recent years many antimicrobial sutures have been developed in a quest to deal with the problem of surgical site infections in the medical world. This study was done to find out the effects of pre-treating the braided suture materials before applying the antibacterial coating agent. 0.1N sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution was used to pre treat / pre scour the sutures to remove impurities and also to open the structure of the silk sutures so as to allow the coating agent to penetrate into the suture structure. A biodegradable polymer and an antibacterial drug, that is, polycaprolactone (PCL) and Sulphamethoxazole trimethropm (SMZ) were used as the coating agent. The polymer PCL was made into a solution of 10% whilst the drug SMZ was made into a solution of 2500 ?g/ml. 5cm pieces of silk braided sutures were first cut aseptically and then washed in 0.1N NaOH solution and dried. After this pretreatment, they were coated with the antimicrobial coating agent and then dried. The pretreated sutures were then evaluated and compared, with non treated sutures acting as the control. Antimicrobial tests were then carried out to find out the effects of pre-treated and non pre-treated sutures on the antimicrobial properties of the sutures. Through this study it was found that the pretreated sutures exerted a better sustained efficacy assay compared to those that are not pretreated, however mechanical properties were lowered but were still within the required standards for antimicrobial sutures