Absorbable or Non Absorbable Sutures in Hand Surgery

After all surgical procedures, the skin must be closed with some form of stitch, in healthcare called suture. According to the tradition of hand surgery, sutures that must be removed by caregivers, ie non-resorbable thread, have been used extensively, and the frequency of complications in the form of wound rupture and infection is low. For many procedures, however, it can be an advantage to avoid removing the stitches, as it is both painful for the patient and time-consuming and resource-consuming for both the patient and the healthcare system. You can then use a thread that the body itself breaks down and absorbs, ie resorbable suture. In the project, we will compare resorbable and non-resorbable suture with the primary outcome of superficial infection in the surgical area sometime day 1-20 after surgery. Secondary outcomes are the occurrence of wound rupture, pain VAS (Visual Analog Scale) when changing 2 weeks postoperatively, patient satisfaction VAS at 2 weeks and time spent in minutes for changing at 2 weeks postoperatively. The project will include all consecutive patients> 18 years of age who are operated on at the hand surgery clinic Södersjukhuset for elective or emergency surgery that do not meet the exclusion criteria. The project will include 270 patients.