1U8 SUTUKKS. 



animal rises is unjustified, provided a sufficient uumber have been 

 used and one or more "relaxation" or "tension" sutures have 

 been inserted. Bayer always sutured wounds left after the removal 

 of elbow tumours (eapped elbow), and although the sutures were 

 exposed to great strain on the animal rising he never saw them tear 

 out. In this country, of course, such tumours are not infrequently 



Fig. 140.— Interrupted suture. 



Fig. 141. — Inserting the suture. 



removed in the standing position under local anaesthesia, and the 

 danger of tearing out is therefore comparatively trifling. 



The knots should lie to one side of the line of union, not on the 

 wound. The threads are cut off short. When the lips of the wound 

 are thin they often tend to turn inwards when sutured and to delay 

 union. This cannot take place where a fold is raised, but should 

 it occur it can easily be rectified 

 by raising the edges with dissecting 

 forceps and holding them in this 

 position until the sutures are tied. 



In tying a surgical knot the free 

 end of the thread is twisted twice 

 around the fixed end when form- 

 ing the first portion of the knot. 

 To remove sutures the knots are 

 grasped with forceps, the loops 



lifted sufficiently to allow the point of the scissors to be slipped gently 

 beneath, and the threads cut and withdrawn. Should a thread 

 stick, the lips of the wound may be supported with the free hand 

 whilst the thread is being extracted. 



The continuous suture or glover's stitch (Fig. 143) is, after the 

 interrupted (Fig. 140), probably that most commonly employed. It 

 begins at one end of the wound like an ordinary interrupted suture. 

 After tying the first suture the thread, however, is not cut off, but 



Fig. 



B 

 142.— Methods of suturing to 

 secure largest possible surface Eor 

 adhesion. K. Interrupted suture. 

 D, D. Suture of relaxation. 



