Need for innovation: laser sutures

Abstract

In this modern era there is dire need of awareness regarding sutureless surgical procedures. Globally 310 million surgeries are performed each year1. Using thread and needle for suturing is still as common as using legs to walk. This method is not near to ideal because of risk of contamination, infections, scar marks, needle trauma, and reopening of tissues if the stitches are not held tight2. The prevention of wound infections after surgical procedures is of great interest for every surgical discipline, in order to improve the quality of patient care. And the best way to prevent suture-related complications is to have sutureless procedures. A number of sutureless methods have developed over the time which includes fibrin glue, cyanoacrylates, scaffolds and bio-inspired adhesives3. The sutureless technique which is receiving increasing attention is Photochemical Tissue Bonding (PTB), which can also be called laser sutures. PTB is a novel tissue repair technique that causes the proteins on tissue surfaces to crosslink by using visible light and a photosensitizing dye. This technique has been successfully demonstrated in a number of tissue repair models4. This suture-replacement technique is able to close incisions nearly instantaneously without damaging tissue. It gives minimum scar, is time saving, has more accuracy, causes less infections and is less user dependent as compared with typical sutures. This technique does not provide promising results on the skin but also has been tested for vascular and nervous repairs5. Therefore I think it’s high time that surgeons should consider using this in their practice. Ethical approval None. Sources of funding None. Author contribution Misbah Kaleem: Conception of work along with final draft. Musaddiq Kaleem: Editing draft and reviewed article. Conflict of interest disclosure The authors declare that they have no financial conflict of interest with regard to the content of this report. Research registration unique identifying number (UIN) None. Guarantor None.