St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-03-04
FINE STITCHING IN SURGERY
Work Of Modern Surgeons Finds Scope
for Skillful Execution
with Needle.

The use of the needle and thread ii
closing wounds has come to be finl
art. In former days the surgeons were
mere bunglers, and most wounds LEFT
hideous scars. But at the present day the
manner in which arteries are ligatured
tendons spliced, intestines sutured and
| wounds closed is the foundation of sue
cess, no skilled use of the scalpel taking
| its place. says the New York Herald
An English railroad hand recently
walked into cut where some labore-s
| were blasting rocks. His approach was
not noticed and a considerable portion
of his body was conveyed several feet
distant by the explosion. His left arm
was virtually torn from the socket and
large part of his scalp had disappeared
altogether. The most serious wounds
were in the trunk. The abdomen had
been split open as if with a cleaver and
the intestines fell out. An old army
blanket was spread over him and one
of the men was about to get a pine box
8
His mutilated body was carried to a hos
pital with the greatest speed.
A London surgeon was telegraphed for
by the local doctor who had been sum-
moned. The intestines, which were COW
cred with dirt and small stones, WEI c
washed and warmed with tepid water.
There were II distinct decorations of
the small intestines, which were care
fully mended with small stitches. Part
of the mans clothing was found en-
bedded against the spine in the depth Of
the cavity. A small. silver watch case
was found bent nearly double where it
had been forced into the stomach. These
foreign bodies were removed and the
abdominal space was washed with a So
luton of bichloride of mercury. The
man fully recovered and returned to
work, but the imitation of "crazy quilt
ing on his hip, where the skin had been
lacerated in zigzag fashion, showed
design worked by the surgeon which
would have been the despair of any
decorative art worker.
Some of the knots which form the
basis of surgical needlework are most
ingenious. There is the square, or reef
knot, which is in most common use. It
is never used for tying arteries or any
delicate work. The ''clove hitch" is an
other knot which is found useful in sur
gerry. 1t is never known to slip and is
easy to make. It's chief object is to
secure a catheter in the bladder. It is
also used to fasten a scarf upon a limb
in order to get good purchase in re-
ducing dislocation or deformity of
fracture.
Ligatures are used in many novel
forms. The tying of bleeding arteries,
bandages, tapes about limbs to control
hemorrhages or to prevent the ABSORB
ton of virus poisoning the blood, as
from reptiles sting are the uses of
ligaturing in surgery. Those used for
tying arteries are unbleached thread.
A very fine, ductile, metallic thread,
generally of silver, has also been much
used. When there is difficulty in Sc
curing bleeding point, on account of
the friable nature of the tissues or be-
cause the latter are too dense to be
pinched by the forceps or ligature, the
hemorrhage can be arrested by passing
a suture deeply beneath the bleeding
vessel and tying the thread SO as to
include it. It is thus that Horsley con-
trolls hemorrhage in operations on the
brain. e 8~
THE Staffordshire knot a method Of
applying ligatures, has been introduced
by Prof TAFT. A small pedicle CT an
organ under operation may be trans
fixed with a single thread, tied around
and the ends carried around the |
central pedicle and tied on the other
side.
There are two forms of sutures for |
drawing the edges of wounds together |
They are the interrupted and continuous. |
The former is employed when only one |
or two stitches are used; the latter when |
the wound has to be regularly sewed,
like a seam. BY the continuous suture |
with each stitch, which is independently |
fastened, if the thread should break in |
one stitch the wound would be held. An |
Of seam is often seen in the
continuous suture owing to the fact that.
although the needle has passed at right
angles to the incision at each stitch,
here is an oblique pull upon the lips of
he wound when the suture is finished.
This is avoided by passing the needle
lfter each stitch through the loop of the
preceding one, thus making sort OF
continuous chain called the Glover
uture," and making each. stitch partly
of the rest.