hydrolytic degradation i e at 28 and 42 days most of the plasma surface treated vicryl sutures also showed better tensile strength retention than the controls the range of improvement being from 20 to 80 better in the dexon sutures the range of improvement on tensile breaking strength retention was considerably better than the controls the results from plasma treating maxon sutures however were not as satisfactory as those obtained using the other synthetic absorbable sutures all the plasma surface treated synthetic absorbable sutures exhibited higher hydrophobicity than the corresponding controls as evidenced in contact angle 0 specific wettability sw and work of adhesion w data for example both untreated pds and maxon sutures had a water contact angle of about 71 degrees while the contact angle of all the treated pds and maxon sutures increased to 90 degrees and above in addition all the treated pds and maxon sutures showed negative sw while the corresponding controls exhibited positive sw the creation of a more hydrophobic and or a more cross linked surface on the synthetic absorbable sutures by the plasma surface treatments of the present invention improve the retention of tensile breaking strength of synthetic absorbable sutures the increasing hydrophobic and or cross linked nature of the plasma treated synthetic absorbable sutures resulted in a slower diffusion of chemicals into synthetic absorbable sutures as was evidenced.