Tensile strength of a surgeon’s or a square knot
Issue Date
2014-09-19Author
Muffly, Tyler M.
Boyce, Jamie
Kieweg, Sarah L.
Bonham, Aaron J.
Publisher
Elsevier
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objective—To test the integrity of surgeon’s knots and flat square knots using four different
suture materials.
Study Design—Chromic catgut, polyglactin 910, silk, and polydioxanone sutures were tied in
the two types of knot configurations. For all sutures, a 0-gauge United States Pharmacopeia suture
was used. Knots were tied by a single investigator (JB). Suture was soaked in 0.9 % sodium
chloride for 60 seconds and subsequently transferred to a tensiometer where the tails were cut to 3
mm length. We compared the knots, measuring knot strength using a tensiometer until the sutures
broke or untied.
Results—A total of 119 knots were tied. We found no difference in mean tension at failure
between a surgeon’s knot (79.7 Newtons) and a flat square knot (82.9 Newtons). Using a Chisquare
test, we did not find a statistically significant difference in the likelihood of knots coming
untied between surgeon’s knots (29%) and flat square knots (38%).
Conclusions—Under laboratory conditions, surgeon’s knots and flat square knots did not differ
in tension at failure or likelihood of untying.
Description
This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Citation
Tensile strength of a surgeon’s or a square knot
Tyler M. Muffly, Jamie Boyce, Sarah L. Kieweg, Aaron J. Bonham
J Surg Educ. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 September 19.
Published in final edited form as: J Surg Educ. 2010 Jul-Aug; 67(4): 222–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2010.06.007
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