Suture packaging

Claim 1

A package for a sterile surgical object comprising an inner packet including a blister iN which the surgical object is received, and a closure lid covering said blister and secured thereto in condition of substantially hermetic heat sealing along a continuous path, and an outer packet, said outer packet comprising a blister in which the sealed inner packet is received, and a closure lid covering said outer blister and secured thereto in condition of substantially heremetic heat sealing along a continuous path, said closure lids each comprising a sheet of a foil of a metal including a layer of plastic material covering thereon to permit heat sealing of said lids to said blisters, the blisters of said inner and outer packets being generally similarly shaped relatively rigidized boxlike transparent structures of thermoplastic material each having a deep main body and encircling flanges outstanding from the main bodies thereof, said flanges providing surfaces to which said closure lids are secured, a length of each closure lid along a portion thereof which is coextensive with an end flange of its associated blister being left unsealed to thereby provide tab means for initiating peelably removing said closure lids from said blisters, said inner packet being received in inverted position in the blister of said outer packet, the closure lid of said inner packet being of a length in excess of that of its associated blister, such excess length being folded up and over an edge of said blister to provide a grasping tab with which said inner packet can be grasped for removing same from said outer packet, both said inner and outer packets containing a sterilizing gas mixture of ethylene oxide and an inert gas under positive pressure up to one p.s.i.g., the condition of heat sealing with which the closure lids of both said packets are secured to their associated blisters being effective to substantially retard the rate of gas inflow and outflow from said packets, said condition of sealing being further characterized by allowing for readily peelably removing said lids from said blisters.