As we started the surgery module this week, we are continuing to learn fun techniques that are practiced on a fresh round of pig's feet. Yesterday I solidified my vertical mattress suture and learned the running subcutaneous sutures. The vertical mattress is useful when you need to apply a fair amount of pressure to close a wound but do not want to invert the wound edges (this leads to a nasty scar). Subcutaneous sutures are sewn with an absorbable suture material and do not need to be taken out. When you get a nice run of those you really see how small of a scar the pig will have. Happy pig.
vertical mattress
We also got to numb a wound with lidocaine -- that was super fun! You insert a syringe into the subcutaneous tissue and numb as you go. It's difficult not to say this out loud: num, num, num, num, num, num, num.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFf90Yl91-4 Click on this video link to hear the rhythm and melody. Warning: this will stay in your head for quite some time.
Yesterday my pig's foot also had a punch biopsy done, wound closure with a staple, and I froze off something that I pretended was a wart.
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