Comparative study between combined oblique and vertical everting running stitch and the conventional suturing technique.

BACKGROUND

Wound management is an essential part of emergency medicine practice. A good suture technique should deal a complex irregular traumatic wound without any complications of dehiscence/gaping, infection, delayed wound healing, frequent dressings and further stay in hospital. There is no ideal technique of suturing for any wound. In pursuit of the new techniques, we have introduced a new suturing technique called combined oblique and vertical everting running (COVER) stitch which has showed good healing with less complications.

AIM: To compare the outcomes between the COVER stitch and conventional suturing group.

METHODS

In this study, we included 40 cases which were divided into two groups. Group 1 patients were managed by COVER stitch, and group 2 patients underwent conventional suturing for their wounds. The outcomes were measured in terms of scar quality, suturing duration and length of suture material used, suturing related complications and suture removal time which were compared by t-test using χ 2 test.

RESULTS

Better results were seen in COVER stitch than the conventional suturing. COVER group had significantly better results in terms of time taken for suture, amount suture material used and time taken for suture removal compared to the conventional group. No wound related complications were seen in this group. Moreover, scar formed was also better in COVER group.

CONCLUSION

COVER stitch is another new technique which can be used to deal simple to complex wounds and it is an emerging idea with good healthy scars with less complications.