Catgut suture used on a kit, or fiddle). Misinterpretation of the word kit as referring to a young cat led to the use of the term catgut. Surgical gut is in fact made from the submucosa of sheep intestine or the serosa of bovine intestine and is approximately 90% collagen. Perhaps another possible explanation of the name is the combination of the words cattle and gut. B Braun Medical AG, a German Multi National company first industrialized catgut suture and Catgut is a brand registered with B Braun. Catgut Chrome (B Braun) suture is a variant treated with chromic acid salts. This
Catgut infection. Catgut sutures remain in use in developing countries where they are locally less expensive and easier to obtain. Catgut treated with chromium salts, known as chromic catgut, is also used in surgery. Natural gut is still used as a high-performance string in tennis racquets, although it had more popularity in the past and is being displaced by synthetic strings. To prepare catgut, workers clean the small intestines, free them from any fat, and steep them in water. Then they scrape off the external membrane with a blunt knife, and steep the intestines again for some time in potassium hydroxide.