It's one thing to have the instruments and consumables in your medical preps.....practice helps too. Seaford Emergency Survival Website in Seaford Delaware - We must learn to take care of ourselves
I'm pretty good at stitching up wounds, at least on animals, but lately I've been eyeballing these disposable skin staplers on Amazon. Seeing someone's gash stapled shut always gives me the heebie jeebies but I'm thinking I will add a half dozen of these to the stash pile unless I hear anyone give good reason against them.
They work great, I have had wounds closed on my own body with staples before. However, you should know that suturing yourself is the best bet. If you have an assistant, staples would work just fine. Some folks believe a stapler will work for them in the BoB --I caution against this because using a stapler to close wounds requires help. In fact, many wounds can be closed with just butterfly closure strips...I found this video to help explain the stapler in more detail:
One of my nephews ran completely through a mirrored wall playing laser tag in someone's house and laid himself wide open elbows to ankles. They stapled the majority of the damage.. we called him Frankenstein for a month, kid had staples running from his ankle clear up to his groin and several other rows on his forearms. Anyway I was impressed with how well they worked on deep gashes, and it seems faster than stitching and less likely I will stab myself in the finger if the victim jumps while I'm working. Like you mentioned tho, the butterfly strips and superglue are my preferred means of closure... especially on myself. Good videos tho, subscribed to their channel.
If you want to "Practice Suturing" take an orange, and cut an nice gash in the peel. Then using a Suture Kit, practice sewing it up, so that if you squeeze the orange, very little Juice comes out, of the repaired Peel. When Momma (RN) was in Advanced Trauma Class, (many Years ago) that was the learning curve used. I practiced with her, at the time, and could likely reproduce the act, in an emergency, but it wouldn't be pretty, just functional.... .... YMMV....
I can live with ugly.......I can't live with dead. I should point out that for some wounds, particularly wounds resulting in necrotic tissue (dead flesh) , some preparatory work on the wound needs to be done and the wound debrided before closure with sutures. Delayed Primary Closure Wound healing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Types of Wound Healing Wound Debridement How to... Ten top tips for wound debridement › Practice development › Wounds International March 3(1) › Wounds International