Polypropylene Barbed Sutures

What Polybarb is

Polybarb is a knotless wound closure device. Two things about it are worth separating, because they are independent: the construction is barbed, and the material is non-absorbable.

The barbs are the visible feature. They are small, formed along the strand, and angled so that it advances freely in one direction through tissue and engages when drawn in the other. That engagement is what holds the line, which is why a barbed suture is described as knotless — the tissue is held by the barbs rather than by a knot the surgeon ties.

The 72° spiral

The barbs are not cut along a single face of the strand. They are set at 72° from one another and spiral around it for its entire length.

The arithmetic is the point: 72° divides 360° exactly five times, so the barbs step around the strand in five positions and then repeat. However the strand sits in the tissue, barbs present on every side of it, and they are distributed along the whole line rather than concentrated anywhere.

Why the material matters more than the barb

The barb determines how the strand anchors. The material determines what happens to it afterwards, and the two questions have different answers.

Polypropylene is a polyolefin: a hydrocarbon backbone with no ester or amide bond in it. Hydrolysis needs a bond that water can cleave, and enzymatic breakdown needs one an enzyme recognises. Polypropylene offers neither, so it is not absorbed — the strand stays as it is unless it is removed.

This is the distinction between Polybarb and Durabarb, which is otherwise its closest relative in the range. Durabarb is polydioxanone, absorbed by hydrolysis. Both are barbed monofilaments; they diverge entirely on what remains afterwards.

Monofilament construction

A monofilament is one continuous strand rather than many fine filaments braided together. It has no interstices between filaments, and therefore no capillarity along its length — a property of braid construction that a monofilament does not have.

It also means there is nothing to coat. A braid is coated because braiding leaves a textured surface; a monofilament’s surface is the material itself, so Polybarb is supplied uncoated.

Presentation

Polybarb is supplied as a unidirectional loop with one atraumatic needle swaged to the strand — needle and suture are a single continuous unit, with no eye to thread. It is offered in USP sizes 3-0, 2-0, 0 and 1, in loop lengths from 15 cm to 70 cm, on a 1/2 circle taper point needle: 26 mm at 3-0 and 2-0, and 37 mm at 0 and 1. The heavy 37 mm needle is supplied on size 1 and on the longer size-0 loops — the 45 cm and 70 cm — while the 15 cm and 30 cm size-0 loops take the standard 37 mm needle. Boxes contain 6 units.

Sizes, indications and ordering

The instructions for use supplied with the product is the controlled document for approved indications, contraindications, warnings and handling. Approved indications vary by market. The code list on this page gives the configurations offered; contact Dolphin Sutures directly for availability in your market.