Does vicryl stand the test of time?
Reviewed by Hetvi Bhatt

This retrospective study aimed to assess whether the long-term success of ptosis surgery was influenced by use of absorbable or non-absorbable sutures. Four hundred and fifty-five operations in 330 patients met the inclusion criteria. One hundred and sixty-nine operations were performed using vicryl absorbable sutures to fix the levator aponeurosis to the tarsal plate; 13% of these required a repeat operation. In comparison, 286 operations were performed using non-absorbable ethibond sutures. Only 5.9% of these required a repeat operation (p=0.0143). The authors also identified that there was no statistical difference in the rate of redo surgery in the first two years, however there was an even stronger difference in these rates after two years with a significance of p=0.0013 in favour of non-absorbable ethibond. Limitations of the study, however, include that they did not look at surgical outcomes such as margin reflex distance (MRD) and only looked at whether the patient went on to have repeat surgery.

Anterior approach ptosis surgery: comparison of absorbable polyglactin sutures and non-absorbable polyester sutures. Does vicryl stand the test of time?
Manasseh GSL, Hunt SV, Garrott H, et al.
ORBIT
2022;41(5):547-50.