circular in cross section the core fibers 16 having larger diameters than the cover fibers 20 the first material i e the material used to form the core filaments 18 is preferably a high strength high molecular weight high tenacity material such as ultrahigh molecular weight long chain polyethylene the second material i e the material used to form the cover filaments 24 is preferably a material having clinically acceptable knot tying characteristics preferably the second material is also opaque and available in a wide variety of colors this allows the cover fibers 20 to be woven into a wide variety of visually distinguishable patterns so the correct sutures can easily be identified in a multi suture application acceptable materials having the proper combination of knot tying ability and color selection include pet polyester coated urethanes and mixtures thereof the size of the core 12 is selected according to the suture strength desired an appropriately sized core 12 can increase the composite suture strength of a suture 10 having the construction of a standard 2 suture to that of a standard 5 suture fig2 and 4 show a suture strand 10 a according to an alternate embodiment of the invention the core 12 a comprises four core uhmwpe fibers 16 a twisted together to form a single core element the cover 14 a comprises eighteen polyester cover fibers 20 a woven together to form an annular braid.