Plymouth Meeting’s ECRI Institute has published a suture report that explains the importance of using the right brand of this essential medical tool, writes Stacey Burling for Philly.com.

The Montgomery County institute that evaluates medical procedures, devices, and drugs, decided to look into sutures after requests from surgeons to use a different kind than was provided at their hospitals.

The matter has come to a head as a number of hospitals are reducing costs by buying in bulk, leaving physicians with little say in the process.

The report determined that the price of sutures varies significantly. For a small hospital, ECRI found the annual cost to be around $51,000. This rises to $320,000 for a mid-size hospital, and $1.3 million for the large ones.

[uam_ad id=”54865″]

Problems with sutures have been connected with patient complications and deaths investigated by ECRI. According to David Jamison, executive director of ECRI’s health devices group, the research basically proved surgeons right.

Suture performance does vary across brands with some performing significantly better than others.

“The supply chain people thought the surgeons were just complaining, but it turns out they were valid in some of the comments,” said Jamison.

Read more about the suture report at Philly.com by clicking here.

[uam_ad id=”54875″]