The Operation That Taught Me How To Suture
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
When I first decided I wanted to be a surgeon (5th year of medical school), I realised I could not suture, because I always thought I wanted to be a paediatrician!
So I had to do something about it. I went to theatre as much as possible (on reflection it was not that much), I was allowed to watch, I never was allowed to do, but I did not know any different. This continued from medical school until a year as a trust grade SHO (Junior clinical fellow).
On one blessed day, it was just a consultant and I, no registrar, and I was assisting him performing an abdominoplasty . For reference, upto this point I had only worked in orthopaedics for 8 months total, but I had done an elective in plastic surgery (with a consultant whose practice was paediatric: hands and hypospadius and some adult gender cases). When it came time to close the wounds he said: 'this is my half and this is your half, do a buried suture to scarpas fascia, deep dermals and a subcuticular" My eyes opened like a deer in headlights and I said ''I only know interrupted''.
He was silent for a moment, then he showed me how to do one of each and then said, continue.
It was from this day I realised I was grossly unprepared, so what did I do - I went and put myself in the firing line as much as possible in front of consultants and registrars to whip my suturing into shape. Would I reccomend this - ABSOLUTELY NOT!
What would have made more sense would have been to
Get a skin pad
Watch some videos online & practice and learn by myself
This way you overcome the beginnner stages in your own time and in front of your seniors they just refine your skills and teach you more advanced skills rather than losing time teaching you basic skills. But I did not know all this at the time! YouTube and social media wasn't as big a thing at that time so it was work and expensive courses. So what did I do next......
Let's fast forward 4-5 years and we have created this platform to make learning at home easier. I will explain the specific trigger that led to tthe launch of the online tutorials in the next blog post!
So after all these years I would say there are 3 essential sutures EVERY doctor and every healhcare professional that performs wound closure needs to know:
The interrupted
The subcuticular (continuous intradermal)
Deep dermal
These are the most commonly used and mean you can close almost any wound, eliminate tension, avoid stitch marks and suture removal (children)
Interrupted Suture Technique
Subcuticular Suture Technique
Deep Dermal Suture Technique
Resources to Improve Your Skills
Watch our full library of training videos here:
Need a better kit? Get ours - it comes with all the instruments, sutures and a sharps disposal pad, the upgraded tungsten carbide needle holder (golden handle) AND access to our advanced skills library
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