I know that I have posted before about our suturing clinic that was directed by our PA program faculty. But, recently, we received an email about a suturing clinic that was open primarily for medical students, but also anyone who needed extra practice suturing. Luckily, many spots were open for us to fill in and surprisingly, we made up the overwhelming majority of the event.
Since we have experienced practicing sutures before, were jumped into practice pretty easily. What I enjoyed most from this was the different styles of suturing that they taught us! We learned some basics in PA school like a running stitch, vertical and horizontal mattress, but this clinic taught us how to throw an interlocking continuous suture (first picture below) and a baseball suture. Surprisingly, I found the interlocking continuous stitch to be very easy compared to the others (and it gave me some confidence with suturing that I did not have leaving the session we previously had). We also were able to practice subcuticular running sutures, with absorb-able material, which are primarily used for cosmetic purposes for better healing of scars. (see second picture below). Finally, we practiced hand-tying knots. Typically, this should have been the first station, but I did this last. At first, I found this very confusing, there are particular ways to tie these knots to make them strong and fast. We were given thick string to practice and make sure that we are creating the correct knots (third picture below). Fortunately, after practicing a bit, I was able to get the hang of it! I even brought a piece of string home to practice tying on a coffee mug =p
Since we have experienced practicing sutures before, were jumped into practice pretty easily. What I enjoyed most from this was the different styles of suturing that they taught us! We learned some basics in PA school like a running stitch, vertical and horizontal mattress, but this clinic taught us how to throw an interlocking continuous suture (first picture below) and a baseball suture. Surprisingly, I found the interlocking continuous stitch to be very easy compared to the others (and it gave me some confidence with suturing that I did not have leaving the session we previously had). We also were able to practice subcuticular running sutures, with absorb-able material, which are primarily used for cosmetic purposes for better healing of scars. (see second picture below). Finally, we practiced hand-tying knots. Typically, this should have been the first station, but I did this last. At first, I found this very confusing, there are particular ways to tie these knots to make them strong and fast. We were given thick string to practice and make sure that we are creating the correct knots (third picture below). Fortunately, after practicing a bit, I was able to get the hang of it! I even brought a piece of string home to practice tying on a coffee mug =p