suture

1. sutura.

2. a stitch or series of stitches made to secure apposition of the edges of a surgical or traumatic wound; used also as a verb to indicate application of such stitches.

3. material used in closing a wound with stitches. adj., adj su´tural.

absorbable suture a strand of material that is used for closing wounds and becomes dissolved in the body fluids and disappears; types include surgical gut, tendon, and some synthetics.

apposition suture a superficial suture used for exact approximation of the cutaneous edges of a wound.

approximation suture a deep suture for securing apposition of the deep tissue of a wound.

buried suture one placed within the tissues and concealed by the skin.

catgut suture an absorbable suture made from surgical gut.

cobbler's suture double-armed suture.

collagen suture a suture made from the tendons of cattle, chemically treated, purified, and processed into strands; it is most often used in ophthalmologic surgery.

continuous suture one in which a continuous, uninterrupted length of material is used.

coronal suture the line of union between the frontal bone and the parietal bones.

cranial suture the lines of junction between the bones of the skull.

Czerny's suture

Czerny-Lembert suture a combination of the Czerny and the Lembert sutures.

double-armed suture one made with suture material threaded through a needle at each end. Called also cobbler's suture.

false suture a line of junction between apposed surfaces without fibrous union of the bones.

Gély's suture a continuous stitch for wounds of the intestine, made with a thread having a needle at each end.

interrupted suture one in which each stitch is made with a separate piece of material.

lambdoid suture the line of union between the upper borders of the occipital and parietal bones, shaped like the Greek letter lambda.

Lembert suture an inverting suture used in gastrointestinal surgery.

lock-stitch suture a continuous hemostatic suture used in intestinal surgery, in which the needle is, after each stitch, passed through the loop of the preceding stitch.

mattress suture suturing with the stitches parallel to the wound edges (horizontal mattress suture) or at right angles to them (vertical mattress suture).

purse-string suture a type of suture commonly used to bury the stump of the appendix, a continuous running suture being placed about the opening, and then drawn tight.

relaxation suture any suture so formed that it may be loosened to relieve tension as necessary.

retention suture a reinforcing suture made of exceptionally strong material such as wire, and including large amounts of tissue in each stitch. Used to relieve pressure on the primary suture line and to decrease the potential for wound dehiscence.

sagittal suture the line of union of the two parietal bones, dividing the skull anteroposteriorly into two symmetrical halves.

squamous suture the suture between the pars squamosa of the temporal bone and parietal bone.

subcuticular suture a method of skin closure involving placement of stitches in the subcuticular tissues parallel with the line of the wound.

synthetic absorbable suture an absorbable suture produced from strands of polymers; the most commonly used materials are polyglactin 910 (Vicryl) and polyglycolic acid (Dexon); the latter is more rapidly absorbed. Synthetic absorbable sutures are absorbed by slow hydrolysis, a chemical process in which the polymer reacts with tissue fluids, causing a breakdown of the molecular structure of the material at a predictable rate and with minimal tissue reaction.

vertical mattress suture a suture whose stitches are at right angles to the edges of the wound, taking both deep and superficial bites of tissue; the superficial ones achieve more exact apposition of the cutaneous margins. When the suture material is pulled tight, the wound edges evert.