Sutures from Surgical Specialties: The Healing Tie that Binds
by Mike Martin for Medco Medical Newsletters

"When they ask me how I have, for so many years, continued an equal interest in medicine and poetry, I reply that they amount to -- for me -- nearly the same thing."
-- Renowned American poet and physician William Carlos Williams, on the "art" of medicine

For all of its science, medicine remains an art for a simple yet profound reason: the physician's touch, the healing qualities -- sometimes intangible -- that skilled hands bring to patient care. Hands heal in so many ways: the routine physical examination; the dramatic surgical intervention; the comforting gesture; the suture.

The innovators at Surgical Specialties consider suturing an healing art and an exacting science that must be mastered with the finest contemporary tools. Look® polypropylene sutures and Stylus® stainless steel needles work in seamless harmony with careful, exacting hands, easily passing through tissue with unsurpassed strength and pliability.

Sutures may be the largest group of devices implanted in humans. That fact may surprise the average patient, and even a few physicians, because the best sutures are unsung heroes of medicine: comfortable, simple, durable -- and uneventful. Sutures do their finest work when they heal without complications and leave without a trace.

Surgical Specialties makes suturing tools that provide top all-around performance, whether your practice has more in common with an urban, state-of-the-art operating room or a busy, one-person country clinic. Look® sutures and Stylus® needles enter without fanfare and exit without incident.

Look® sutures: handling with care the ties that bind

Inert and supple, Look® sutures handle and tie without adding complications to already difficult procedures. Available in single packs or long multi-packs, Look® non-absorbable sutures stand out with peak visibility in the wound, providing excellent knot security and potentially fewer throws. A hallmark of their non-capillary construction: smooth, round cross sections with unmatched tensile strength that work with your fingers to bring skilled, expert closure.

Stylus® needles: tomorrow's cutting edge -- today

Fine, sharp, and true: the stylus. In classical times, it engraved golden ornaments for the Holy Roman Emperor and drew the maps that guided Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo.

Aptly named Stylus® needles guide Look® sutures with unequaled strength and minimal trauma. Sleek and sharp, these top-quality stainless steel needles sport a tapered point for easy tissue penetration with minimal drag that maintains its cutting edge even after multiple passes. Carefully matched to suture wire diameters, each needle minimizes line bleeding with a smaller hole. Tough as nails, Stylus® needles also resist breakage, even under the stress of reshaping. Special packaging results in lower suture memory, with easy front dispensing for existing O.R. racks.

Operating room nurses and technicians helped design Stylus® needles, so practitioners don't have to reinvent the needle every time they open a box.

Surgical Specialties: continuing the historical tradition

Sutures may be the oldest medical instruments still in use today. They were first described formally in the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, a 5-meter long scroll that detailed 48 cases, written by an Egyptian surgeon some 4000 years ago and named for the 19th century American Egyptologist Edwin Smith.

"Thou shouldst draw together for him his gash with stitching," the scroll commands.

Founded in 1971 by brothers Rolf and Bill Schmidt in a garage, Reading, Pennsylvania-based Surgical Specialties has continued the innovative history of the suturing arts, providing the stitch of choice at such leading institutions as MIT and Harvard University. Their 270-person team specializes in the "design and manufacture of precision products for difficult procedures," company president Paul Krupa says.

Over the centuries, surgeons have fashioned sutures from flax, hair, linen, pig bristles, grass, ant mandibles, cotton, silk, nylons, polyesters, and even metals. The ancient Greek physician Galen recorded the first use of animal gut. Surgical Specialties weaves sutures from the toughest, most-pliable modern-day materials: polypropylene, braided polyester, nylon, and chromic gut, the 21st century descendant of Galen's 1st century breakthrough.

Today, proprietary manufacturing processes give the engineers at Surgical Specialties maximum control over the quality of all Look® and Stylus® products. From the selection of raw materials to the patented packaging of finished needles and sutures, the Surgical Specialties team holds their products to the highest USP standards with rigid inspections. Their commitment to quality helped Surgical Specialties achieve the prestigious ISO 9001 certification.

The Look® Brand 100% Guarantee

Surgical Specialties Corporation will refund the purchase price of any Look® brand suture purchased on an initial evaluation order if that suture does not perform equal to or better than your current suture and provided you return at least 50% of the original contents of the box. Contact Surgical Specialties or your local Look® brand distributor for details or to place your evaluation order.