how can you do stitches youself on someone?

Question

how can you give stitches on a cut to someone at home? is there a stitches kit you can buy or something? is there some kind of instructions to give stitches?

my mom accidently cut herself with a vase and its really deep and big but we don't have insurance so we don't want to spend 700 dollars to get stitches if we can do it ourself.

can you buy dermabond somewhere? or does super glue work?

Answer 1

Why would you want to do your own stitches? If a person has a cut bad enough to require stitches, it's to achieve two things: 1) Stop bleeding and 2) bring cut skin edges close together to allow for proper healing.

You can stop bleeding by applying direct pressure to the wound until you get to the hospital or clinic.

As for bringing the skin edges together properly to allow healing, why would you do this yourself when a doctor who has practiced on thousands of patients (and plenty of pigs feet and orange peels before that) could do it properly?

To stitch skin properly, you would need to:
1) examine the wound to make sure there is no deeper damage to underlying blood vessels and nerves. Are you qualified to do this?
2) Irrigate the wound to rinse out foreign bodies and contaminants. Do you have sterile saline at home? How about a bright enough light to ensure the wound is clean of debris?
3) Do you have sterile needles and a sterile supply of local freezing lying around at home? Otherwise, do you like subjecting your loved ones to unnecessary pain and suffering?
4) Do you have sterile needle drivers, non-toothed forceps and suture materials? Even if you did manage to get the materials, do you know how to drive the needle through the skin and how far from the wound edge to start your needle?
5) Do you know how tight to tie your knots so they don't slip and so they don't strangulate the tissue? Do you know how to throw square knots down in alternating directions?

If you answered no to any of these questions, then just go to the doctor. It's not worth the money you'd save to try home surgery.

Addendum:
1) Dermabond and superglue only work on superficial wounds with really clean, neat edges, and the glue only bonds when the skin is perfectly dry (that is, not bleeding). The glue has to be carefully applied to the dry outside skin, not the moist edges of the wound, otherwise it will form a barrier and the wound will never come together.
2) The wound needs to be stitched within about 8-12 hours. Otherwise the risk of infection is too great, and it will have to be left open to heal from the bottom up.

By the way, if you think $700 is too expensive to have a deep wound properly treated, how much do you think a nasty abscess and wound infection and a week in hospital on IV antibiotics would cost? There's a time to be cheap, and then there's a time to be reasonable.

Answer 2

You can purchase dermabond online. The correct application is to thoroughly clean the wound, flush it with ideally saline, or more realistically some bottled water. Then disinfect the wound with something like, rubbing alcohol (which will hurt), or hydrogen peroxide. Finally make sure the area around the wound is clean and dry, bringing the wound edges together, everting them, so that there is no gap at all between the wound edges and apply the Dermabond in layers on the SURFACE. Do not allow any to get into the wound, or it will not heal properly. This is mostly detailed on its website.

If you don't have quick access to Dermabond, you can substitute superglue, just don't use too much and don't allow any of the substance to get inside of the wound. If you use too much you risk damaging the skin as the curing reaction is exothermic(produces heat). Be sure to thoroughly clean the surface around the wound and to evert the wound edges by squeezing them together before applying the superglue. Use a couple thin layers and try to cover at least a half centimeter past the wound edges to make sure the wound doesn't dehisce(come apart).

Alternatively, you could also buy some steristrips from your local drugstore along with some band aid liquid bandage. Follow all prior mentioned steps, which involves thoroughly cleaning the wound and area around it, then apply the steristrips perpidicularly across the wound while holding the edges together. Once enough steristrips have secured the wound coat the entire area with liquid bandage. Either of these methods should hold the wound edges for at least 5-7 days which should be enough time for the wound to gain maybe 5% of it's original strength. Be sure not to aggravate the area while it is healing and be very careful when taking off the adhesives. Ideally don't take it off and let it just fall off on its own.

Alternatively you can just go to the ER and be stuck with a 50 dollar bill. The taxpayers will pick up the rest of the tab. You gotta love the healthcare system in America.

Answer 3

No, that is not something that is "do it yourself" at all. A doctor needs to stitch up a wound, it must be kept sterile and there are layers of skin (if it is deep) that need to be individually done. This is a very strange question, it makes me wonder why you'd want to do this, did this person do something illegal?

Answer 4

Go to an urgent care place or to a place staffed with physician assistants/nurse practitioners; it won't be 700 dollars. There are tons of kinds of sutures, and they are not easy to learn spur-of-the-moment. If it is this serious, definitely go to the ER or urgent care.

Answer 5

i'm going to ditto on sport and casto

and like i have always said they can't refuse to treat you and they can't reposess your hand! for to the ER!