Sutura metálica con aguja doble armada para reconstrucción auricular. Experiencia en su fabricación y uso

Abstract

Autologous tissue techniques for auricular reconstruction use specially design stainless steel sutures for the fabrication of the 3-D costal cartilage framework. These sutures are not available in our country. The present work describes an original handcraft technique for making this kind of sutures using medical approved components and compares their resistance with and without sterilization. Thirty sutures, made according to our technique, were included in this study divided in 3 groups: without sterilization (control), stem sterilization and gas sterilization (ethylene oxide). The average break force for the control group was 10 Newton, for the stem group was 24.1 Newton and for de gas group was 23.9 Newton. The suture resistance improved after the sterilization process with statistical significance. We conclude that is possible to make a steel suture for auricular reconstruction on a low cost per suture basis. These sutures are of choice in auricular reconstruction procedures at our institution.