Practice makes perfect

Practicing suturing techniques at home

Increasingly we are hearing from delegates saying that they cannot practice in their spare time due to restrictions with obtaining animal tissue.

Whilst we understand that sometimes it is difficult to be able to do exactly what you want to do in your spare time or at home, this should never become a real problem where practicing needle, instrument handling and knot tying techniques are concerned. Different techniques that we have suggested in the past for fine knot tying is a 7.0 Prolene and a cigarette paper. This is great for knot tying practice which is very difficult without pulling through when tying the knot.

Other day to day items that can be used for practicing are bananas, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs to mention just a few, all of these make excellent training aids.

One item that we have been using for a little bit of fun is to suture two cigarettes end to end, make sure that they are well aligned and tight so that when you lift one up the other doesn't move around

Poached eggs make an excellent substitute for the heart and can be used for practicing repositioning your needle without the use of forceps.

Try cutting a grape in half, now sew it back together with at least 4 interrupted sutures. It does not matter how the grape is held, and the suture choice is left to you, there are two modes of failure. One is if your suture rips through, the other is if you tie too loosely that when you pick up the grape by one half, the other half sags or shifts.

Get a banana and place it on its side, cut a hole into its side with an aortic punch, now try and suture around the hole so that it looks like a clock face, try and get the spaces even.

If you have a good idea for a training aid email us and the best one will win a prize.