A Novel Knotless Barbed Suture Technique for Traumatic Thoracolumbar Fracture in Posterior Surgery.

Background: Surgical wound closure directly influences spinal surgical efficiency and several postoperative complications. The traditional suture technique is time-consuming and associated with greater rates of complications. Bidirectional absorbable barbed sutures seem to compensate for some of the limitations of traditional suture; however, they rarely are reported in spinal surgery. We designed a novel suture technique for use in thoracolumbar spinal surgery.

Methods: The data of 189 patients with traumatic thoracolumbar fractures were analyzed between bidirectional barbed suture closure and traditional interrupted suture closure. Data of operative time, wound closure time, length of incision, intraoperative blood loss, complications of wound dehiscence and postoperative hematoma, cost, and neurologic status were collected.

Results: No significant differences were observed in the baseline demographics of included patients. Compared with the traditional suturing group, the barbed sutures decreased the mean operative time (P = 0.037), suture time (P < 0.01), and mean suturing time (P < 0.01) significantly, although no statistically significant differences were found in blood loss (P = 0.724) and neurologic functional scores (preoperative: P = 0.901; 3 months after surgery: P = 0.208; final follow-up assessments: P = 0.163), and no statistically significant differences were found in rates of postoperative infection, hematoma, and wound dehiscence.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the novel knotless barbed suture has comparable strength to traditional sutures, with the advantage of less suturing time. It is an efficient, safe technique, and alternative choice for patients with thoracolumbar fracture after posterior surgery.