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Medical Author:

Hien L Tran, MD

Medical Editor:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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If a wound is deep, more than about ¼ inch long, does not stop oozing blood, is in a sensitive or cosmetically important area (eye region, lips, or genitals for example), call the doctor or consider going to an emergency or urgent care facility. All wounds and sutured areas may scar; if you have serious cosmetic concerns, you may need to consult a plastic surgeon for special suturing methods to reduce scarring.

After sutures are placed, examine the wound with the suture daily during bandage changes. Look for signs or symptoms of infection:

• Increased pain
• Swelling
• Redness
• Fever
• Drainage of pus or pus-like material
• Red streaking from the wound
• Separation of the wound

If you develop any of these symptoms, you should contact your doctor immediately for further evaluation. Your doctor will likely start you on antibiotics and may ask you to make an office visit.

• You should also see your doctor for continued bleeding, for removal of sutures, and if the doctor who placed the sutures recommends that your wound be checked (usually two days after placement of sutures), that follow-up should be done.
• Call your doctor if your sutures fall out before your scheduled time for suture removal because your wound may open up, potentially causing a larger scar.

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