One of the most used high skill medical interventions is suturing.
In times of disaster when qualified medical practitioners
are not available, suturing can be performed easily as
long as it is not
in
nerve rich
areas
such
as
the face
and hands. (Sutures
in
these areas could cause debilitating nerve damage and should only
be attempted by a person that is specially trained.)
1- Suture. I will not attempt to describe the knot
in writing but practice with forceps and pre-threaded suture packs
on raw chicken or turkey skin on the bird (sew then eat). Keep Ethylon
5 and 3 as well as chromic gut 3 in your gear. Generally, gut is used
for internal sutures and Ethylon
for removable [external] sutures.
2- Surgical Staple Guns. For surgical closure,
staple guns are
an easier but messier way to close a wound. Stapling can even be performed
one handed.
3- Glue A close chemical relative of cyanoacrylate
"super glue" (2-octyl cyanoacrylate) is available from veterinary suppliers
as vetabond. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate
Super glue cyanoacrylate is an irritant, so sensitive tissues especially
need the dermabond/vetabond formula. For the face and hand wounds just
butterfly closures or glue [instead of sutures], unless you have special
training in nerve and vascular location.
Wounds needing suture must be fully cleaned, preferably with betadine
and even then they still have high risk of infection. If there is sign
of infection open and drain. Consider systemic antibiotics.
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