Panacryl Sutures like a Horror Movie, for Some

July 9, 2007, 8:15AM. By Gordon Gibb

Somerville, NJIf you've ever seen the movie 'Alien', you know the horror of witnessing something lurking within, coming up through the skin and emerging like the horrible monster it is.

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction, in that while the monster depicted above is a figment of someone's imagination, another monster known as Panacryl has proven every bit as disturbing for some.

Ethicon introduced Panacryl sutures in 1999, and were marketed by Johnson&Johnson as the latest breed of absorbable suture that afforded strength and durability - effective for up to six months - combined with the capacity to be completely absorbed by the human body. Fashioned from a braided synthetic material, Panacryl sutures were used in soft tissue and orthopaedic surgeries, including ligament and tendon repairs where strength was important. Wound support for up to six months was deemed a definite feature.

Absorbable sutures were a revolutionary development, given the elimination for the need to perform further surgery in order to remove stitches. Sutures that would do their job, then simply disappear when the time came were a dream come true for the medical community.

Instead, the whole thing turned into a nightmare. A horror movie, for some.

That's because the absorbable sutures would not absorb, or dissolve - leaving in their wake a high rate of infection and other difficulties. Scar tissue would often form around them, creating a bump under the skin properly called a soft Granuloma. Patients would also experience tunnelling, or the appearance of miniature tunnels formed around the incision area caused by the suture inhibiting healthy tissue growth.

And then there are the so-called spitting sutures - the ones that push out through the skin.

Almost 7 years and 1,061,712 sutures later, Ethicon initiated a voluntary recall on March 28th of last year.

Christine Bledy, from Woodland Hills California, thought her nightmare to be the ovarian cancer she was diagnosed with in 2000, for which she had radical surgery. That procedure was successful, but a minor procedure later that year involved the use of Panacryl absorbable sutures.

And thus began an 18-month ordeal - not from the ovarian cancer, but from the Panacryl sutures. Her doctor told her that Panacryl was used for her procedure due to the strength of the material with an eye for preventing hernias.

However, as we now know, the Panacryl suture is so strong and durable that the absorbable suture had a tendency not to absorb, and was especially troublesome in surgeries involving soft tissue. Bledy suffered for 18 months with open wounds and pieces of suture, and knots emerging from her body.

Happily, her cancer appears to be in remission. As for the Panacryl sutures, Bledy contacted Ethicon in 2001 and was told there was no problem with the sutures.

At last report Bledy was in communication with a lawyer.

One could wonder how a product strong enough to remain intact for up to six months in the human body, could also effectively disappear without a trace. That said, society has little choice but to put its trust into manufacturers that no doubt do extensive testing prior to bringing a product to market. Or at least, that's the theory.

Ethicon is standing by its product, in spite of the voluntary recall. There are several lawsuits pending, initiated by litigants who have gone through horrendous events resulting from the lingering suture that's akin to a surgeon leaving an instrument behind. Like the instrument, the suture is treated as a foreign body, by the human body.

And the human body will pretty near do anything, to get rid of it.

The movie "Alien" did well at the box office. Let's hope some Panacryl survivors do equally well with the court cashier.