title: Wound breaking strength and healing after suturing noninjured tissues.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many operative procedures involve suturing healthy, previously nontraumatized tissues. The present study was done to investigate the wound breaking strength and healing after suturing noninjured tissues.
  
  
  METHODS
  A new experimental model of muscluloaponeurotic suture in the mouse is described and used to investigate the scar breaking strength, the concentration of 5-hydroxyproline, the extrusion of suture material, and the histological characteristics of the repair process. Scar quality was compared at three weeks between a group of mice in which suture was done without prior tissue injury (n = 24) and three groups of mice (n = 24 each) with prior tissue injury (tight-ischemic suture, incision, and cautery). Silk (n = 8), polyglactin 910 (n = 8), and polypropylene (n = 8) sutures were used within each group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Scars resulting from the suturing of healthy tissues had less breaking strength than those with ischemic, incised, or cauterized wound edges (507 g compared to 590, 730, and 732 g, respectively; p < 0.001) and had a lower 5-hydroxyproline concentration (5.1 ng/mg compared to 6.09, 6.77, and 7.49 ng/mg, respectively; p < 0.01). Polypropylene sutured scars had a higher breaking strength than silk (690 compared to 608 g, p < 0.01) or polyglactin 910 (690 compared to 626 g, p < 0.01). Most of the stitches were extruded from the scar independent of the suture material.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quality of a scar does not seem to be as good when wound edges are healthy than when they have been previously injured.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Hospital de Sant Celoni, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miro
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Julià
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sitges-Serra
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002921:Cicatrix / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006909:Hydroxyproline / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D011098:Polyglactin 910; D011126:Polypropylenes; D011506:Proteins; D047011:Silk; D013537:Sutures; D013718:Tensile Strength; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D011126:Polypropylenes; D011506:Proteins; D047011:Silk; D011098:Polyglactin 910; D006909:Hydroxyproline