Product Manual

Through the ages, the tying of knots has played an important role in the life of man.
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Most of the ancient civilized nations, as well as savage tribes, were accomplished
rope makers. Because rope could have served few useful purposes unless it could be
attached to objects by knots, man’s conception of the rope and the knot must have
occurred concomitantly. Knotted ropes played many important roles in the ancient
world, being used in building bridges and in rigging ships.
Because rope and knots have been two of man’s most useful tools since the dawn
of history, it is not surprising that they also have symbolic and even magical
connotations. It was the custom of Roman brides to wear a girdle tied with a square
(reef) knot, which their husbands untied on their marriage night, as an omen of
prolific offspring. Moreover, it was believed that wounds healed more rapidly when
the bandages which bound them were tied with a square (reef) knot.
This mythology of knots may have contributed to some surgeon’s perception of
surgical knots more as an art form, than as a science. For those artisans, the use
of methods and materials for suturing is usually a matter of habit, guesswork, or
tradition.
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This approach to suturing has contributed to a growing concern that
the knot construction employed by many surgeons is not optimal and that they
II. introduction
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