Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) suture can be absorbed by the human body, and so have wide applications in modern surgery operations. The degradation period of PLA suture is expected to meet with the healing time of different types of wounds. In order to control the degradation period of the PLA suture, the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were composited with PLA suture, and the degradation experiment in vitro was performed on sutures. The structure and properties of sutures during degradation, such as surface morphology, breaking strength, elongation, mass and chemical structure, were tracked and analyzed. The results indicated that the degradation brought about surface defects and resulted in 13.5 weeks for the strength valid time of the original PLA suture. By contrast, the strength valid time of the CNTs/PLA suture was increased to 26.6 weeks. Whilst the toughness of both the pure PLA and CNTs/PLA sutures decreased rapidly and almost disappeared after 3 to 4 weeks of degradation. The mass loss demonstrated that the time required for complete degradation of the two sutures was obviously different, the pure PLA suture 49 weeks, while CNTs/PLA sutures 63 to 73 weeks. The research proved that CNTs delayed PLA degradation and prolonged its strength valid time in degradation.

Polylactic acid (PLA) surgical suture can be absorbed by human body. In order to avoid surgical site infections (SSIs), the drug is usually loaded on the PLA suture, and then the drug can release directly to the wound. Because the different types of wounds heal at different times, it is needed to control the drug release rate of PLA suture to consistent to the wound healing time. Two biopolymers, polyglycolide (PGA) and polycaprolactone (PCL), were selected as the carrier of ciprofloxacin (CPFX) drug, and then the CPFX-PCL/PGA was coated on the PLA suture. The degradation rate of drug-carrier can be controlled by adjusting the proportion of PCL/PGA, which can regulate the rate of CPFX drug release from PLA suture. The results show that the surface of PLA suture, coating with PCL/PGA, was very rough, which led to increased stitching resistance when we were suturing the wound. These materials, such as the PLA suture, the PCL/PGA carriers and the CPFX drug, were just physically mixed rather than chemically reacted, which was very useful for ensuring the original efficacy of CPFX drug. With the increasing of PCL in the carriers, both the breaking strength and elongation of these un-degraded sutures increased. During degradation, the breaking strength of all sutures gradually decreased, and the more PCL in the coating materials, the longer effective strength-time for the suture. With the increasing of PCL in the drug-carrier, the rate of drug releasing became lower. The drug release mechanism of CPFX-PCL/PGA was a synergistic effect of drug diffusion and PCL/PGA carrier dissolution.

Drug loaded PLA suture has been one most potential surgery material to help wounds healing. The loaded drug amounts and sustained drug release effect were a vital part for PLA suture. In this research drug-loaded microspheres and finishing bath were prepared to ensure more drug particles loaded on PLA suture. Moreover, sustained drug release effect and mechanical properties of PLA suture were also observed. The results suggested that PLA concentration and emulsifier amounts had more effect on the size of PLA drug-loaded microspheres and the optimal technology was: 0.03 g/mL of PLA concentration, 0.3 g of amount of emulsifier and the total amount of drug and emulsifier was 3 g. Moreover, drug release test showed a significant sustained release effect of the drug-loaded PLA suture. Mechanical measurements indicated the flexibility and strength were not impaired by such drug-loaded method. This research is expected to benefit the surgery fields further.

Polylactic acid (PLA) surgical sutures are a new type of absorbable sutures that can be degraded and absorbed in the body. However, there is high hydrophobicity for the surface of PLA sutures, which leads to poor biocompatibility and cellular affinity. In order to increase the hydrophilicity, the PLA sutures were etched by lipase firstly, and then grafted with chitosan. The results indicate that the optimal conditions of treating PLA sutures by lipase were as follows: 45℃ reaction temperature, 4.5 g/L concentration of lipase and 8 h reaction time. The sutures were etched by lipase and then formed some grooves and a number of hydroxyl (-OH) bonds, which led to increased surface area and hydrophilicity, but a drop in mass and strength. The optimal conditions of grafting chitosan onto PLA sutures were as follows: 4 h reaction time and 3 g/L concentration of chitosan. The chitosan grafted and loaded on the surface of PLA sutures, and in some areas of the sutures the chitosan reunited, which led to a rough surface and large friction coefficient. Finally, the hydrophilicity of the PLA sutures, treated by lipase and then grafted with chitosan, was greatly improved.