When would you use a horizontal mattress suture?
The horizontal mattress suture is useful for wounds under high tension because it provides strength and wound eversion. This suture may also be used as a stay stitch for temporary approximation of wound edges, allowing placement of simple interrupted or subcuticular stitches.
When do you use horizontal and vertical mattress sutures?
Vertical and horizontal mattress sutures allow for skin edges to be closed under tension when wound edges have to be brought together over a distance. The corner stitch, a variation of the horizontal mattress suture, is commonly used for closure of angled skin flaps or wounds.
What is the mattress suture technique best used for?
The horizontal mattress suture is an everting suture technique that spreads tension along a wound edge. 1,6,7 This technique is commonly used for pulling wound edges together over a distance, or as the initial suture to anchor two wound edges (holding sutures).
What is a mattress interrupted suture?
The interrupted vertical and horizontal mattress suture techniques are two of the most commonly used skin closure methods. These mattress sutures promote wound edge eversion and less prominent scarring.
What is horizontal mattress suturing used for?
Horizontal Mattress Sutures. What: Horizontal mattress suturing is a fairly useful back-pocket trick to have in your repair arsenal. It’s most useful for high tension wounds especially when the edges are fragile or frayed.
How to use a mattress as a closure for a cut?
A nice use of this technique is to place the horizontal mattress first to act as your assistant, holding the wound edges approximated while you perform a more meticulous closure. You can even clip this suture in the end–one less foreign body in the wound to worry about.
How do you tie a 1 cm suture?
The suture is then tied using either an instrument tie or surgical tying method. While “1 cm” is really just a rough guide, this will be generally the distance across the wound and down the wound should be similar, such that a square box shape is created.
How do I overcome the problem of interrupted suturing?
A slight variation can overcome this problem, but I would start here if you are just familiarizing yourself with this technique. I find these sutures most useful for temporary placement amidst a difficult repair with high tension. Sometimes, it can be difficult to bring wound edges together to facilitate simple interrupted suturing.