I just went to get my sutures taken out, and the ends behind each ear seem to be difficult to remove. Not sure if the doctor i went to to have them removed (not my ht doc) was new to this, but he said i had scabs surrounding the knots on each end.
I soaked my head for 15 minutes before i went in, but didn't help much. Any ideas guys? He removed the mid section along the back of my head but i still have to remove both ends behind my ears.
yeah the doc i went to get the stitches out left half in there as it was too hard to remove. I called my HT doc and she recommended continue spraying of saline solution with some hydrogen peroxide to loosen up the scabs and try again.
In our clinic we usually remove all of the sutures by day 10. However, we occasionally use cutaneous(skin) sutures which will dissolve in 2 weeks or so. More commonly, patients think that there are sutures still in place and its actually just dry skin/scabs along suture line that needs more vigorous cleaning. Finally, with our 2 layer closure, about 1 person in 30 has a deep suture extrude, usually around 3 months out. Thus, we often ask patients to come in for a check around that time and particularly to call if they are having any issues like this. You were smart to call your doctor and ask her thoughts.
I am having the same issue with my left side, I was told that the sutures have to dissolve. It's now 15 months past my HT and it still feels like the sutures are still under my skin, there is still swelling and pain. Is this normal?
Posts: 162 | Location: VIRGINIA SURGICAL CENTER | Registered: January 21, 2006
you had dissolvable sutures? That i am not familiar with. Perhaps one of the Doc's on here would know?
Mine were normal sutures and i finally got them all out. The knots on either side of my ear were the hardest to get out. They were scabbed over and attached to some hairs. Hurt like hell getting them out, even with soaking my donor area! The doc showed me the suture knot and it was attached to a small bunch of hairs and blood. Not fun.
Its been about 10 days and my area is still really sore and hard to sleep on. I cannot imagine 15 months! Hell, the top of my head is still numb..
I can't address what other doctors do, but we use either synthetic skin sutures(have the feel of fishing line) or staples to close the skin; and remove these at 7-10 days. Both have very little inflamation of the scalp, although some other skin sutures can be quite inflamatory; particularly dissovlable skin sutures.
For the deep layer we usually us vicryl, and find that it limits stretching. I have posted other threads about the reasoning behind this not only in hair, but face procedures too. But, the one problem is that about one person in 30 that we do, extrudes a vicryl suture at 1-3 months postop. Generally we only put in 3 or 4 vicryls and RARELY do I get a call from someone having trouble, but its easy for that dissolvable suture to be removed in less than a minute. For most dissolvable sutures, its a race between one's body trying to dissolve the suture and the body trying to extrude it like a splinter. For us the ratio is dissolving wins about 29 times out of 30.
