A survey of the use of synthetic surgical sutures.

Unlabelled: We conducted a survey of the use of synthetic surgical sutures for the purpose of making clear the current status of their use.

Method: We collected the suture packages used from each surgery over a one month period, and counted the number of sutures.

Result: We found that for aortic aneurysm surgeries, liver surgeries, pancreatic tumor surgeries, etc., over 100,000 yen worth of synthetic surgical sutures were used. Also, for surgeries such as plastic surgery procedures that involve microsurgery, cardiovascular surgery, thyroid surgery, liver surgery, pancreatic tumor surgery, and open gynecological surgeries, the average cost of synthetic sutures is over 10% of the surgical charge. As is seen above, for surgeries which used a great amount of synthetic surgical sutures, the cost of synthetic surgical sutures occupied the surgical technical fee. Based upon the concept of separating the technical fee and the device cost, the cost of synthetic surgical sutures should be excluded from the surgical charge, and a process should be put into place whereby they can be billed to insurance separately.