About Us

BioSS are a research team from Queens University Belfast involved in an Innovate UK funded ICURe programme. We are exploring new generation drug-eluting surgical sutures.

Find out more about our project below and if you are interested please get in touch!

The problem

• Surgical site infections (SSIs) remain a major cause of postoperative morbidity and mortality, particularly for incision that are considered ‘dirty-contaminated’. 
• The incidence of SSIs has been reported to be over 27% and can be as high as 40% in extreme cases such as abdominal laparotomy and intestinal procedures. 
• CDC 2022 report indicates that the incidence of SSI is associated with a 2- to 11-fold increase in the risk of mortality, especially in developing countries.
• The occurrence of SSIs may result in repeat surgeries, use of systemic antibiotics, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and prolonged hospital stays with approximate additional increased healthcare costs of up to $60,000 per patient. 
• Commercially available antiseptic-coated sutures merely prevent biofilm formation on the surface of the suture threads, rather than releasing the active agent to ensure a bacteria-free zone surrounding the stitched surgical site throughout the healing process. 
• In addition, they have limited drug loading, typically <20%, and such limited drug content, coupled with the unique miniatured nature of this type of wound-closing device renders the drug-loaded sutures less effective to prevent SSIs with additional implications to promote AMR. 

Our solution

• Biodegradable suture threads prepared by our innovative technology can host two-drug combination and retained the suture required quality.
• We achieved up to 30–40 % w/w combination drug loading embeded into the surture matrix rathar than only coating the suture surface far exceeding the limited drug loading capacity of similar products currently on the market.
• The surtures demonstrated better efficacy and significantly increased zones of inhibition against the most common bacterial pathogens found on surgical wound sites when compared to Monocryl™ Plus and Vicryl™ Plus antibacterial sutures. 
• Our drug-eluting sutures demonstrate sustained release and sustained antibacterial activities over an extended period (over 30-days) compared to similar products currently on the market (Figure 1).
• The bi-drug combination in the sutures also allowed local delivery of a second drug such as local anaesthetics/pain relivers, and antiinflammatory drugs to manage pain and inflammation at the surgical wound site, which can alliviate patients’ suffering. 
• Overall, this dual drug combination in the suture can help avoid and/or reduce oral and systemic administration of antibiotics and pain relievers post-surgery and eliminate side effects associated with NSAIDs and/or opioids used in pain management post-surgery. 
• Thus, our innovative drug-eluting sutures can play a significant role in preventing SSIs and addressing AMR. Thus, reducing healthcare.

30 Day View

Figure 1. Zone of inhibition assays of Commercial antibacterial suture, our novel bi-agent suture (30%), and single drug suture (17%) against S. aureus and E. coli (from left to right) at day-7 (a), day-15 (b), and day-30 (c) respectively.

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