[Absorbable polydioxanone monofilament in the surgery of the anterior segment of the eye].
PDS (Polydioxanone suture), a new synthetic absorbable suture, was used in experimental and clinical trials. The experiment was performed on 14 rabbits anesthetized with intravenous sodium pentobarbital. Five months were needed for complete absorption of a piece of PDS left in a tunnelled corneal stroma. As late as the end of the second month no histological absorption was detected. This was twice as long as that persistence of polyglactin sutures studied under the same experimental conditions. In another series of 12 animals, the PDS suture was placed in the central cornea and tied with a buried knot. The PDS suture broke four to six weeks postoperatively in the superficial part of the cornea. The histologic tissue reaction in both these studies was minimal, resembling that obtained with black 10/0 monofilament nylon. In the clinical study, PDS sutures were used (size 0.2 metric and 0.3 metric) in 38 cases of cataract extraction. The material was easy to handle, especially when dyed violet. No side-effects attributable to the suture material were observed. PDS retained its tensible strength longer than other absorbable sutures, but can be used only for closing limbal incisions with conjunctival flaps in order to prevent tear hydrolysis of the suture.