air heated up to a temperature of 70 u00b0 to 90 u00b0 c in this chamber the threads are held for 1 to 2 hours the method of the present invention makes it possible to produce absorbable surgical threads whose mechanical strength is 83 to 105 of cellulose threads before oxidation the swelling property of the sutures produced according to the invention is reduced down to 20 to 60 as compared with the swelling property of the initial non oxidized cellulose threads absorbable surgical sutures were produced according to the invention in the following way 2 4 kg of complex viscose threads having a size of 60 18 and a tensile strength of 4 75 kg were oxidized with nitrogen oxides in a conventional manner the oxidized threads were thoroughly washed with water and then tested to determine the content of carboxyls fixed nitrogen relative humidity tensile strength and degree of swelling in water ______________________________________content of carboxyls 6 5content of fixed nitrogen 0 12relative humidity 12 8tensile strength kg 3 35degree of swelling in water 59 5______________________________________ thereupon the wet threads were placed in a reaction vessel having a capacity of 20 liters and filled with a 10 of an aqueous solution of sorbitol in an amount of 15 liters the threads were held in the reaction vessel for 2 hours whereupon they were withdrawn therefrom and.