https://www.vetsurgeon.org/f/non-clinical-questions/21096/out-of-date-suture-material The RSPCA Shelter I visit handed me a box of old donated suture materials (long story of how they got them). They&#39;re all out of date so I can&#39;t use them, but I can&#39;t remember if some charities abroad would ever use them? Last time I went to India I thinken-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127620?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 23:07:48 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:2d17fdbf-8f3e-44f9-9a18-1e9ba5469d01Sammy82<p>So does Vicryl and definetely Catgut. I would open a couple of &nbsp;packs and test it for strenght before giving it to anyone. I wouldn&#39;t be worried about the sterility yet if packs are undamaged and they have been stored under clean and dry conditions.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127618?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 22:56:39 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:471163c2-befe-4802-b7f4-60ee58119e35Lindsey Edwards<p>From experience, polydioxanone at least degrade over time ... depends on how many restitched cases you wish to donate!</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127596?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 17:20:45 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:5de6d188-cf84-4add-8ae0-dc66bd3c098aMartin Atkinson<p>[quote user=&quot;James Gould&quot;]they got almost all there swaged on stuff free as it was out of date and had been doing so for years without issue...&nbsp;[/quote]Ssshhhh....you may give people ideas that sealed, sterile, non-degradable things don&#39;t cease to be perfectly OK when some arbitrary &#39;use by&#39; date has past. <img src="https://www.vetsurgeon.org/emoticons/v2/devil.png" alt="Mischievous" /></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127592?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:53:29 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:275c61c0-5617-4c6e-8b94-ae19e55ddb3bJames Gould<p>I was working in a nice area of Melbourne a couple of years ago as my first locum role over there, and noticed in surgery that the suture material was out of date so asked for another, turns they were all between 2 and 7 years out of date. I asked the partner, they got almost all there swaged on stuff free as it was out of date and had been doing so for years without issue...&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127574?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:16:01 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:39c9e480-af35-4024-a9fd-41aec3937e93Yantha Smyth<p>Could they be re-sterilised by someone with EO?</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127573?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 12:49:55 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:0f7b3466-a1a2-4404-81af-5fcf0d66fa9fAnthony Dennison<p>It&#39;s all swaged on stuff in packets, most went out of date latter half of 2012</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127547?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 07 Jan 2015 01:44:44 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:a0be04e3-33d5-4394-b6c3-358177432cc4David Mills<p>Depends. If it&#39;s swaged on stuff in individual packets it&#39;s usually goo for a year or so. If it&#39;s in spirit, throw it. I was in Botswana recently and there was a load of spirited reels of stuff a couple of years out of date - it was useless and ended up in the bin.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/127517?ContentTypeID=1Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:05:43 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:83f19a37-153a-4cca-99ad-714d7fae3933Mark Hedberg<p>How out of date is it? Last week, or last century?&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>