Abstract
This study evaluated various mechanical responses that evolved as a function of gauge length for PGCL sutures. Gauge length dependency is important to be studied as it directly reflects the possible complications related to suture failure and inadequacy of mechanical properties, which could happen due to inappropriate suture lengths used in incision closure. The results show that the gauge length caused differences in monotonic and cyclic responses of the PGCL samples. However, the stress relaxation response is unaffected by the gauge length. In monotonic responses, most of the mechanical parameters, including elongation at break, load at break, ultimate tensile strength as well as initial modulus, improve with increasing gauge length. The overall stiffness and strain at break decrease as the gauge length increases. Both stress-softening and hysteresis loops are observed in all PGCL samples with varying gauge lengths. As the gauge length increases, the permanent set decreases, whereas the maximum stress level and hysteresis increase. Concerning crystallization behavior, the degree of crystallinity, lattice strain, and crystallite size are altered by the gauge length. As the gauge length increases, the lattice strain decreases, and the crystallite size decreases.
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This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia through Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) - FRGS/1/2019/TK05/UM/02/10.
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Yan Jie, Low wrote the main manuscript text, collected data, carried out data analysis, and prepared all figures and tables. Andri, Andriyana reviewed the manuscript and performed data validation. Bee Chin, Ang and Nor Ishida, Zainal Abidin reviewed the manuscript.
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Low, Y.J., Andriyana, A., Ang, B.C. et al. Effect of gauge length on the mechanical responses and crystallization behavior of poly(glycolide-co-caprolactone) (PGCL) suture. Mech Time-Depend Mater 27, 665–686 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11043-023-09596-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11043-023-09596-x