Deposition and characterization of the Ag nanoparticles on absorbable surgical sutures at the cryogenic temperatures

Abstract

Surgical sutures are one of the most widely used medical devices for wound closure. In the meantime, the suture surface and area may be exposed to many microorganisms, and surgical site infections may develop in these environments. Today, giving antimicrobial properties to polymeric sutures has been one of the methods used to prevent these infections. In this study, the absorbable polymeric-based suture (Pegelak®) was homogeneously coated with nano-sized silver particles by the vacuum deposition at the cryogenic temperatures (<300 K) instead of the commonly used vacuum deposition at high substrate temperatures, and its physical and antibacterial properties were investigated. It was determined from the morphological and tensile strength analysis that some deformations occurred in the Ag-coated suture at 300 K; however, the coating of the suture at 200 K did not signifcantly afect the morphological and mechanical properties of the suture. According to photocurrent measurement, the plasmon resonance efect of the Ag-nanoparticles-coated suture at 200 K was observed around 450–525 nm. The illumination of the Ag-coated suture at 200 K with light in the plasmon resonance wavelength region increased the Ag+ release from 3.67× 10−3 ppm to 6.65× 10−3 ppm. In the microbiological analysis, it was observed that Ag-coated sutures obtained at both 200 K and 300 K showed antibacterial activity against all tested bacteria.