r/surgery • u/AttitudeJazzlike6958 • 4d ago
I did read the sidebar & rules Suture
I am in Grade 10 and recently bought a suture kit. I want to be a surgeon, so I was practicing basic stitches. How does it look? Do you have any feedback?
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u/LooseCryptographer89 4d ago
My biggest recommendation for anyone starting out is it doesn’t matter how the sutures look. The first steps of learning how to suture isn’t how the sutures end up but making sure you have the correct form, meaning how to hold the needle driver (palm it), how to open it smoothly, and knot tying. There are many good tutorials on YouTube for this.
When training in med school I would have a needle driver in my pocket to practice opening it. And our processor had us buy a spool of string and our assignment was to tie enough knots to use all the string on the spool
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u/xyphrrrrr 4d ago edited 4d ago
As a vascular surgeon, focus on school and getting good grades at this point in your life. Assuming you are in the US, grade 10 means you are about 15 years old. You have about 10-15 years before you will ever have even an opportunity to throw a stitch on a real patient. And another 5-10 years to practice them daily on real patients. This is frankly not a productive use of your time. The quality of your suturing is irrelevant and will remain irrelevant right now unless you get the opportunity to get into college and then ultimately medical school. Practicing suturing right now at this stage in your life is about as pointless and a waste of time as can be. But to answer your question frankly — your stitches look absolutely awful, which is completely expected from anybody suturing for the first time, let alone a teenager. If you want to be a surgeon, focus your energy on the things that will get you there. Get good grades, do well on your MCAT, volunteer, shadow some doctors, and get experience working in the field to see if you truly enjoy it. These things will serve you much better than suturing will if your goal is to be a surgeon. Good luck in your endeavors.
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u/luouixv 4d ago
I came across a comment from a 66yo urologist that I think is worth sharing here, especially with this kid asking for feedback on his suturing technique.
He wrote:
“I started this journey to become a Surgeon in the ninth grade with six hours of homework a night so that I could get into that 7 year medical program to please my ambitious parents. Everything I did was to accomplish this goal, sacrificing all the usual experiences of a teenager.
Then I missed all the wonderful experiences of college as I had to meet all my premed requirements and MCATs in two years of college. Then came the sacrificing required for four years of med school placing relationships and a family on hold during my prime years of 21 to 25.
While all my other friends were enjoying life, going to the Hamptons, developing hobbies, having children etc, I was walking the halls of Bellevue and other hospitals from ages 25 to 32 to become a Urologist rationalizing that normalcy was around the corner.
Then age 32, I finally finished my education. Sadly, the commitment was only just beginning. Now I had to work my ass off to be offered partnership at age 35.
I’m 66, I can fill Madison Square Garden with the surgeries I have performed. I’ve taken one week vacation a year. I’ve had the realization that I am out of time.
People assume that I must love what I do. They see the nice car and home which I don’t really enjoy as I’m still working 60 hours a week and I’m on call 20 nights a month and at 66 will be on call for my 30th Thanksgiving.
I’m not sharing this for your sympathy. All self imposed. I’m sharing this at 4 AM for the young man or woman who may be on a similar trajectory as a warning or for the mother and father pushing their kid to be successful.
Being successful is not being Happy. The majority of patients I am diagnosing with cancer are now consistently younger than I.
I am so out of time!!
You Being so much younger than I can still correct your course. Take the satisfaction of having helped so many already, and now cure yourself. Don’t wait til you are 66.”
I think this is an important perspective for someone who is already focused on becoming a surgeon in the 10th grade.
There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, developing technical skills early, or knowing what you want to do professionally. But there’s a difference between pursuing something because you genuinely love it and building your entire identity around achieving it.
I’m not suggesting that anyone abandon their ambitions. I’m suggesting that at 15 or 16 years old, there’s a lot more to life than preparing for a career that won’t actually begin for another decade or more.
Explore medicine. But make time to be a teenager, develop friendships, pursue other interests, and enjoy experiences you won’t get back.
The goal shouldn’t just be to become a successful surgeon. It should be to build a life worth happily living.
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u/Porencephaly 4d ago
My feedback is that I didn’t own one of these kits until medical school, I maybe used it one time, and I still became a surgeon. Don’t waste any of your free time in high school practicing suturing.
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u/Intelligent-Seat9038 First Assist 2d ago edited 2d ago
Take even bites on each side of the incision - Whatever depth you do on one side, do the same on the other and continue to do that same depth.
Edit: the uneven sutures cause (what I call) bi-level closures. That means that one side of skin won’t line up evenly with the other side. It’ll take longer to heal.
It’s about approximating, not suffocating. When tying off the first and last stitch, leave a tail - don’t cut at the knot.
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u/Intelligent-Seat9038 First Assist 2d ago
Replying to myself for another tip.
You should start by doing a simple interrupted stitch. Once you’ve got a good grasp on that, then practice doing horizontal mattress stitches. It’s all about even bites!
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u/Tacokolache 3d ago
These are just bad. But that’s ok. You have to start somewhere.
Get a consistent bite on both sides with enough tissue. Watch some YouTube videos. You’ll get there
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u/UnusualWar5299 3d ago
Better spend it time than GTA and other video games, at least you’re gaining some knowledge! Your sutures don’t look neat, they won’t until you are shown how to do it professionally. They’re better than many, but they’re uneven and each ‘bite’ doesn’t have the same tension. Too much tension and the blood supply below gets taken out and the tissue dies, too little and the suture doesn’t hold the tissue together enough to heal properly and make the smallest scar. The bigger issue is how and where are you going to make the surgical incision so that the area you suture will be smallest and most easily converted into a ‘hidden’ scar? As a surgeon the incision is the only thing the patients see, so it’s what they grade you on, not on their insides, which is actually the most important part. I’m impressed you’re practicing with suturing over Netflix, but it’s a skill you can’t learn in a room by yourself. Either take up quilting or volunteer to work in a hospital, maybe ER.
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u/SurgicalMarshmallow Attending, Trauma 3d ago
what the god awful fuck is this. Your registrar should be fired.
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u/MaximsDecimsMeridius 4d ago edited 4d ago
1: To be honest, these sutures are absolutely hideous, but also what i expect for a teenager with absolutely zero formal training.
2: Focus on getting into college and med school/PA school/NP school first
3: look up YouTube tutorials on how it should be done and what they should look like. It'll give you a much better idea of how to suture properly. Focus on more basic suture patterns first like simple interrupted or simple running and tying knots first.