SUTURING 103 



single thread will be found suitable for general use, and when 

 the use of a larger thread is deemed advisable it is only nec- 

 essary to double the strand according to the tensile strength 

 required. 



Sterilization of Suture Materials. — The importance of 

 sterilizing all sutures perfectly is sufficient to warrant fre- 

 quent reiteration. The perfunctory method in vogue, con- 

 sisting of transient immersion of previously exposed threads 

 in the ordinary antiseptic solutions, is palpably wrong, pos- 

 itively inadequate and grossly illegal. It should be a.n abso- 

 lute law with every veterinarian to insert into the bodies of 

 animals only threads that are known to be perfectly aseptic. 

 Contamination during the operation by being handled or by 

 resting upon the tray, table or other object while waiting to 

 be used, is much less frequent than might ordinarily be sup- 

 posed. The suture that is septic before being handled can- 

 not hurriedly be sterilized, while the one that is aseptic be- 

 fore being handled seldom becomes septic during the opera- 



Fig. SI — Round Needles. 



tion if ordinary sensible precautions are taken to prevent. 



The supply of abundant suture material for field opera- 

 tions may be economically maintained by keeping the silk 

 and linen in salt mouth bottles filled with ether or alcohol, 

 well corked, ever ready for use in any ordinary quantity. 

 Cat-gut should be purchased only in hermetically sealed bot- 

 tles furnished by manufacturers who vouch for. their asepsis. 

 Raw cat-gut will not yield to any practical yet safe method 

 of sterilization that the veterinary practitioner could carry 

 out in his inadequate laboratory. For hospital operations 

 silk and linen threads are best, sterilized in the sterilizer — an 

 equipment that should no longer be absent from the modern 

 operating room. It is preferable to thread as many needles 

 as there will be stitches required, and place them in the 

 steam compartment of the sterilizer in a small basin. Com- 

 pact balls of thread may be placed in the water compartment, 

 but loose threads become entangled from the turbulence of 

 the boiling water. By using a separate needle basin, the 

 thread, the needles and the basin are brought out perfectly 



