Ten-year experience with Mersilene-reinforced sternal wound closure

Reply to Losanoff et al.

“…As regards Puc's report of reduced tissue damage with polyester tapes [6], we note that in this report both stainless steel wires and Mersilene ribbon were used. Sternal cortical bone behaves rather like femoral trabecular bone since it fails by yielding; and the rate of yield (or rate of wire cutting through bone) is proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the area of contact: rate of yield G force=area of contact Therefore, one would expect that polyester tape would cut through bone less quickly than polyester suture because of the greater area of contact.…”

Primary Closure of Median Sternotomy: Techniques and Principles

“…Johnston et al [48] reported 12 instances (1.2%) of infection among 1019 sternotomy patients; only five patients had deep infection requiring radical debridement. Puc et al [49] combined standard closure with Mersilene tapes in 1039 patients. They concluded.…”

Preventing Proximal Adjacent Level Kyphosis With Strap Stabilization

“…There have been reports of strap devices stabilizing orthopedic repairs (eg, sternum repair after sternotomy, coracoclavicular fixation after unstable clavicle fracture, and segmental spinal fixation). [10][11][12] Biomechanically, it was proven that 1 loop of Mersilene and 2 loops of Ethibond (Ethicon) had similar loads at failure, although the strength was significantly lower than stainless steel wire. In addition, in an animal study, Grobler et al showed, when comparing the use of Mersilene tape and stainless steel wire, that fixation was adequate in both groups and that the distinct connective tissue membrane surrounding the Mersilene tape was more mature and bet-ter formed than that surrounding the stainless steel wire.…”