Sutures are commonly used in medical procedures to sew tissue together in order to close tissue openings, cuts, or incisions during or after the medical procedure. Sutures are also used, in conjunction with anchors or other similar devices, to achieve or maintain traction, or other positioning of tissues or organs, during medical procedures. According to any of these uses and others, sutures are typically looped through the tissue and the one or more free ends knotted to maintain a desired position or tension of the suture. More specifically, a clinician may manually tie together a suture pair or knot a free end of a single suture to secure the appropriate positioning. According to embodiments where the suture is used to maintain traction, tension in the suture between the anchor and the knot tied adjacent the patient's skin ultimately provides the desired traction.
Although knotting sutures may prove effective for certain procedures, there are a number of disadvantages of knotting sutures to secure tissues to one another and/or maintain a desired tension. For example, knot tying may require a considerable amount of time and may require a certain degree of dexterity. Further, knots may permanently fix a suture in place and, thus, may not be removed or adjusted once in place without removing the entire suture. Thus, although an additional knot may be created to increase suture tension, decreasing suture tension may require abandoning the previous suture and using another suture that may be knotted at the appropriate tension.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,806,910 to Anderson teaches a suture clip comprising a plurality of flexible elements positioned together in a row. Specifically, first ends of the elements, which are bonded together at second ends thereof, are movable about living hinges and configured such that a tool may be used to urge the first ends of at least a portion of the flexible elements inward to define a slot between the first ends of the elements. A suture may be received within the slot, while the tool is actuating the flexible elements, and may later be held by the clip when the flexible elements are moved apart such that a tortuous path through the first ends of the elements is defined. The suture clip taught by Anderson, which appears to require a tool for actuation, is particularly suited for internal suturing, as described in the disclosure.
The present disclosure is directed toward one or more of the problems or issues set forth above.