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They do make absorbable staples...they suck!!!
Staples are quicker on the scalp...should have put that in my post also....I'm so used to instructing the residents on suturing technique and having them complain about wanting to use a stapler......my answer is: your grandmother can staple, a surgeon sutures......then we let them use the little machine as a reward.
It is a nice addition to a field med pack if you have the space for it.....I have used it in my tac-med world with an officer getting a wicked laceration of the forearm...washed, stapled, dressed and back in the thick of things in less than 2 minutes. Nice thing about staples it is so quick, don't absolutely need lidocaine....just staple. Feels like a nasty pinch but tolerable.....yes, we tried it on ourselves so I am speaking from first hand knowledge.
ss
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'Revel in action, translate perceptions into instant judgements, and these into actions that are irrevocable, monumentous and dreadful - all this with lightning speed, in conditions of great stress and in an environment of high tension:what is expected of "us" is the impossible, yet we deliver just that.
(adapted from: Sherwin B. Nuland, MD, surgeon and author: The Wisdom of the Body, 1997 )
Education is the anti-ignorance we all need to better treat our patients. ss, 2008.
The blade is so sharp that the incision is perfect. They don't realize they've been cut until they're out of the fight: A Surgeon Warrior. I use a knife to defend life and to save it. ss (aka traumadoc)
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