Minor Lacerations: How to Suture Them
So we’re hiking along on a beautiful sunny day about 5 miles from the campsite, and someone in our group slips and cuts their leg open on a sharp rock. We stop and tend to his wounds, washing the dirt out with clean water from our canteens, but the bleeding won’t stop. What do we do?
Applying constant pressure is the first thing to do, and it will probably stop most bleeding. The key is to not keep removing the bandage to check, because this pulls the newly forming clot, unleashing the blood flow again. For a more stable wound closure you can field suture the wound. If you can get a hold of some professional stitching suture, that would be great. I have found the kits at this place, Deluxe Suture and Surgical Kit , to be the best deal for the price. The instruments are sturdy and the kit has everything you need. In a pinch however, a needle and some clean thread will have to do, especially if your miles from home. You probably wont have any numbing agent, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.
A single surgical stitch, is a basic loop with a couple of “granny knot”. There really is no magic about it. Field sutures are crude, but the stop bleeding and seal off the wound from further contamination.
We can throw a couple of extra half-hitches into the knot, and that makes it a “surgeons knot”, and helps hold the string from loosening back up.
So make sure you irrigate the wound well, and stop by you personal doctor’s office afterwards for evaluation of you handywork, and possibly antibiotics and/or a tetanus shot.
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Nice stuff. I think I will get one for my girlfriend at the end of this month.
didn’t know that sutures can be performed by a person other than a physician ..good first aid advice!