Thermally drawn porous sutures for controlled drug release using thermally induced phase separation†

Abstract

Surgical sutures have increasingly been developed to incorporate functionalities beyond wound closure, including the promotion of tissue regeneration and monitoring of tissue conditions. However, conventional surface treatment methods for inducing functionality to sutures have limitations, primarily due to restricted material integration and the inability to form complex internal morphologies. This study introduces a customizable porous (CP) suture fabricated through a combination of the thermal drawing process (TDP) and thermally induced phase separation (TIPS), resulting in a microscale porous structure. The CP suture developed via the TIPS-TDP overcomes the limitations of surface-coated drug delivery sutures by enabling controlled drug release. By engineering the TIPS-TDP, we produced CP sutures with tunable pore sizes, allowing precise control over drug release profiles and degradation rates suitable for various therapeutic applications. Additionally, the versatility of the TIPS-TDP facilitates the integration of multiple materials, supporting the development of innovative functional sutures capable of dual-drug delivery. This platform demonstrates its potential in advancing the fabrication of complex, multi-functional sutures for extensive biomedical applications.