Catgut Catgut Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys. Despite the name, catgut manufacturers do not use cat intestines. The word "catgut" may have been an abbreviation of the word "cattlegut". Alternatively, it may derive by folk etymology from "kitgut" or "kitstring"—the word "kit", meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word "kit" for a young cat; The word kit, being derived from fiddle in
Catgut suture racquets. Gut strings were being used as medical sutures as early as the 3rd century AD as Galen, a prominent Greek physician from the Roman Empire, is known to have used them. Catgut suture Catgut suture is a type of surgical suture that is naturally degraded by the body's own proteolytic enzymes. Absorption is complete by 90 days, and full tensile strength remains for at least 7 days. This eventual disintegration makes it good for use in rapidly healing tissues and in internal structures that cannot be re-accessed for suture removal. Catgut suture has high knot-pull tensile strength and good