A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VICRYL RAPIDE SUTURE VERSUS CHROMIC CATGUT SUTURE FOR EPISIOTOMY REPAIR.

Background: An episiotomy is a perineal incision performed to facilitate childbirth by enlarging the diameter of the vulvae outflow. This study used vicryl rapide suture, a polyglactin analogue that causes less tissue reactivity and is removed through hydrolysis (as opposed to chromic catgut suture), because long-term complications after episiotomy repair are common. Made of collagen, chromic catgut is broken down by proteolytic enzymes and phagocytosis, which causes an inflammatory response in the tissues. Regarding the better suture material, opinions differ. (Rephrase this paragraph) This study was therefore designed to compare pain at 48 hours and analgesia requirement at 7th day in chromic catgut suture and vicryl rapide suture. The purpose of this study was to determine pain at 48 hours and analgesia requirement at 7th day between vicryl rapide suture and chromic catgut suture.

Methods: It was a comparative prospective study carried out at Shaikh Zayed Hospital's Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department in Lahore. A non-probability, consecutive sampling technique was applied to divide 206 study participants in two groups, i.e., (n=103) in Vicryl Rapide (Group A) and (n=103) in Chromic Catgut (Group B).

Results: In this study the mean age of the cases in vicryl rapide group was 28.94±3.50 and in chromic catgut group it was 29.05±3.43. A total of 103 (50%) female were enrolled in Group A and 103 (50%) were enrolled in Group B. In this study pain at 48 hours was found in 33 (32%) patients in vicryl rapide group and 52 (50.5%) in chromic catgut group p-value=0.007. Similarly, analgesia requirement at 7th day was found in 2 (1.9%) patients in vicryl rapide group and 26 (25.2%) patients in chromic catgut group with significant p-value <0.001.

Conclusions: This study concluded that vicryl rapide was the best suture material for episiotomy repair, resulting in decreased pain after 48 hours and lesser need for analgesia by the seventh day.