Gunze Limited

Ikuo Sasaki

Masakazu Suzuki

Kenji Tomihata

The present invention relates to a coating material for surgical sutures which comprises as essential ingredients a copolymer having repeating units of lactic acid and &egr;-caprolacton and calcium stearate; and a surgical suture comprising a lactic acid/&egr;-caprolacton copoymer in which a lactide/&egr;-caprolacton ratio is (70-85 mol %)/(30-15 mol %) and the number of &egr;-caprolacton repeating unit is 2.5 or greater on the average.

Surgical suture

The invention relates to a surgical suture comprising a copolymer as an essential component, the copolymer consisting of lactic acid (lactide) and .epsilon.-caprolacton as repeating unit, wherein shrinkage ratio of said surgical suture is 5% or less after heat treatment at 60.degree. C. for 20 hours and method for production thereof.

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Ayabe, Japan

Ikuo Sasaki