The Basics of Suturing: What You Need to Know!

Chances are you have had stitches at some point in your life, whether it be from surgery or a serious injury. Suturing serves as a way to bring the edges of a wound together and is used to promote healing, strengthen the wound, minimize scarring, and preserve the function of the area.

If you are interested in becoming a doctor later on, knowing how to suture is a great skill to have.

What You Need:

To learn how to suture, you must have certain materials at your disposal to be able to practice, such as:

• Suture pad
• Suture thread and needle
• Suture tools

You can buy these materials on Amazon. It makes a great gift too!

Suture kit

Types of Thread:

There exists two types of sutures: Absorbable and non-absorbable sutures.

• Absorbable: The enzymes found in the tissues of your body will naturally digest them. 
• Non-absorbable sutures: Need to be removed in the days or weeks following your procedure, or may be left in permanently. 

Sutures are typically made from a variety of materials that are ​​natural or synthetic. Here are a few examples: 

• Nylon: Nylon creates a type of natural monofilament suture
• Polypropylene (Prolene): This material creates a monofilament suture.
• Silk: Silk sutures are typically braided and made naturally 
• Polyester: This form is synthetic and braided

Types of Suturing:

There exist multiple types of suturing techniques that serve different purposes. Typically, you’ll see two variations of a suturing technique: interrupted and continuous sutures.

• Interrupted suture: Closes the wound where each stitch is separately tied.
• Continuous suture: Closes the wound with a single suture. Only the first and last stitches are fixed by knotting.

Over and over sutures:

Also known as simple interrupted and simple continuous sutures, these are possibly the easiest and most basic suturing techniques.

• Interrupted: It may be used alone in the context of small wounds under minimal to no tension, such as those formed by either a small bunch biopsy or a traumatic laceration.

• Continuous: It can be a useful technique for skin closure when speed is important. It is also useful for long wounds where wound tension is minimized with properly placed deep sutures.

Subcuticular sutures:

Subcuticular suturing is a standard technique in dermatologic surgery. It is an ideal option for closing wounds that have minimal tension and mobility. Suture marks are avoided by running the needle along the skin within the subepidermal plane.

Horizontal matrress sutures:

Horizontal mattress suturing everts skin well and spreads tension along the wound edge. This makes it ideal for holding together fragile skin as well as skin under high tension such as the distant edges of a large laceration or as the initial holding suture in complicated repairs.

Vertical mattress sutures:

Vertical mattress sutures are particularly useful in wounds under tension. They also help to evert wound edges in situations where the skin is prone to naturally inverting into the wound.

Lock-stitch suture:

This suture technique provides precise adaptation. It may be used alone in the context of small wounds under minimal to no tension, such as those formed by a traumatic laceration.

It is generally used as a secondary layer to aid in the approximation of the epidermis when the dermis has been closed using a dermal or other deep suturing technique.

It is used for three central reasons:

• To aid in hemostasis
• To provide improved eversion over the standard running suture
• To provide equal tension across all loops of the running suture

Conclusion:

There is much to know about suturing! We’ve run through the basics of suturing, the following weeks will focus on how to suture.

Read more! https://dearfuturedoctor.com/category/tips/

Also read https://dearfuturedoctor.com/how-to-place-a-simple-interrupted-stitch/