A surgical suture is a small, thin length of line used by surgeons to seal wounds following surgery or an inadvertent break in the skin. Sutures are packaged in sterile packaging to prevent infection. Sutures can be made from animal tissue (surgical gut), special silk, synthetic materials, or stainless steel, depending on the medical use. Brands of medical suture include Ethicon suture, Covidien suture, and Autosuture. Suture needles are used to insert sutures into tissue.

Some sutures are absorbable, while other sutures are non-absorbable. Absorbable sutures can be made from ovine (sheep) or bovine (cow) tissue or from synthetic materials designed to break up after they have served their purpose. The material used, and how the material has been processed, determines the time line of disintegration for the suture. A benefit of absorbable sutures is that the patient does not have to return to have the suture removed. Absorbable sutures also are useful for sealing interior wounds. Sometimes surgical gut can result in inflammation caused by immune system response to the material. Chromatic gut is surgical gut that has been processed to limit the incidence of inflammation.

For certain procedures and conditions, non-absorbable sutures can be used. Materials used to make non-absorbable sutures include nylon, polyester, polypropylene, silk, or stainless steel wires. For wounds in the skin, these sutures can be removed after 2-3 weeks - when healing is sufficient. Non-absorbable sutures provoke less immunological resistance than absorbable sutures, so they can be used to limit the incidence of scarring. Non-absorbable sutures are preferred for certain internal surgical procedures in which absorbable sutures are not well suited. In some cases, non-absorbable sutures are removed after healing, while in other procedures, the sutures remain in the patient on a permanent basis. Besides sutures, there are other forms of wound closure, for example surgical meshes such as Covidien mesh and staples. One manufacturer of wound closure options is Ethicon wound closure.