Stainless steel wire suture
Non-absorbable metallic suture made of stainless steel wire (typically a 316L alloy), available as a monofilament strand or as a bundle of fine twisted filaments.
How it is used
Its main use is sternal closure after median sternotomy (see this catalog's sternal closure entry), typically placed as figure-of-eight or circumferential wires; it is also used in some tendon repairs and orthopedic fixations.
Clinical tip
It provides the highest strength and twist security of any suture material and is essentially non-degradable, but can fracture from metal fatigue over time (a relatively common, often clinically silent, finding on chest X-rays after prior sternotomy); cut wire ends must be well bent over or buried to avoid irritating soft tissue.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-05.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.