CONTINUOUS, BLANKET, AND PIN SUTURES. 139 



with disfavour. Despite the greatest precautions the wound cannot 

 always be maintained aseptic. If the glover's stitch has been used, 

 and it should become necessary to relax or remove a thread here and 

 there, the whole wound reopens. 



In the blanket or button-hole stitch (another form of continuous 

 suture) the needle, after traversing the lips of the wound, is carried 

 under the slack of the thread, so that the loop of each stitch as it is 

 tightened is maintained at right angles to the edge of the wound, 

 whilst the intermediate portion lies parallel to it. 



The pin suture, also known as the twisted or figure-of-8 suture 

 (Fig. 163), though much praised by certain operators is less often used 

 than formerly. It is employed where the edges of the skin are very thin 

 and without much subcutaneous tissue, as, for example, in the eyelid, 

 wing of the nostril, skin of the cheek, lip, etc., and where the margins 



Fig. 162. — Continuous or sflover's stitch. 



Fig. 163. — Figure-of-S or pin suture. 



show a tendency to roll inwards. The pin then acts as a support for 

 the edges of the skin. The pins are usuall}- from one and a half to 

 two inches in length, and parallel sided. The}- should be flexible, and 

 ma}' be of brass, copper, silver, etc. Ordinary pins, however, are 

 very commonly used. They are sometimes inserted with a special 

 instrument which holds the pin in a short tube and, by means of a 

 pear-shaped handle like that of an awl, permits greater power to be 

 exerted. The pins are passed at some distance from the edges of the 

 wound, and a thread wound around the free ends in a figure-of-8. 

 Where several pins are inserted in series one thread may be used for 

 securing the whole, as in Fig. 163 ; in other cases a separate thread 

 is employed for each. When secured the points of the pins are cut off 

 with powerful cutting pliers. In remo^'ing pin sutures the margins of 

 the wound should be pressed gently together \\-ith the fingers of one 



