Forty Wistar-Tecpar rats were used to determine the performance of polyglecaprone 25 sutures in the abdominal wall, contaminated or not. The animals were anesthetized and polyglecaprone 25 was implanted into the ventral abdominal wall on the left side and compared to the use of plain catgut implanted on the right. The subcutaneous tissue of 20 animals was contaminated with a standardized Staphylococcus aureus solution and the remaining 20 animals were not contaminated. The animals were checked on the third and seventh day after implant and the tissue reaction caused by polyglecaprone 25 in the presence or absence of contamination was found to be significantly less intense.