Laceration Repair

The main goals behind a repair of a laceration include:

Our physicians will evaluate your cut or laceration and first clean the wound thoroughly to avoid infections and future complications. They will then decide if your specific laceration requires sutures and which sutures would be appropriate for the kind of break in your skin that you have suffered. Sometimes special skin glue and taping is used to close skin tears without the use of sutures.

At the same time the specific tissue or skin laceration is evaluated for underlying tissue, vascular structure or nerve damage. If there appears to be nerve or vascular damage then our physicians will get in touch with the appropriate vascular surgeon or plastic surgeon to assist with the care of your injury. Many times a laceration does not involve underlying damage but it is imperative for future function to rule out underlying injury.

After the area is examined thoroughly the skin laceration is cleaned using sterile washes and antiseptics and foreign bodies and objects if present are removed. Once the wound or skin break is evaluated, the area is numbed by injection of local anesthetics such as lidocaine. Sometimes with deeper lacerations absorbable sutures are placed in the tissue to help bring the tissue and skin better together.

Sutures help bring the skin together so that it may heal properly with limited scarring and risk of infection. It is imperative that the wound or suture site is monitored for signs of infection.

Signs of infection at suture site include:

Traumatic wound or break in the skin can be closed with different sutures but most common used suture is nylon based. Sutures usually used for skin lacerations are non-absorbable and are usually removed in 7 to 10 days depending on the site of the laceration and mobility of the site. Cuts and wounds on the face where the skin is thinner for example will be removed sooner than sutures placed on places that incur more movement or have thicker skin.

Our doctors will place a dressing or adhesive bandage to the area as well as instruct you to place ointments with healing and anti-septic properties.

Some lacerations require oral antibiotics vs antibiotic ointments. Human or animal bite cuts and wounds are more likely to become infected and require oral antibiotics.  Our doctors may also require a tetanus vaccine if you have not recently had one or the object in which the cut occurred from was rusty or metal based.

House Call Doctor Laceration Repair

Are house call doctors, plastic surgeons or vascular surgeons are as well equipped to evaluate and repair your laceration at your home, hotel or desired location. We are currently providing sutures of cuts, wounds, and repair in the greater Los Angeles area.