suture removal

[hoose]

Curious what many of the members do for suture removal considering most travel out of state for their ht; Do they have a local doc remove them, etc....I can't imagine traveling back to your HT doc to have them remove the sutures 2 weeks later considering many travel by plane to get to their ht doc......thanks for they help!

[Goldilocks]

I traveled out of town for my second hair transplant and had the sutures removed by a local doctor. That worked out just fine. In fact, my hair transplant surgeon even gave me instructions for the best method of removing them so I could give them to the local doctor.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

I prefer to take out my own sutures...but for out of towners, I'm ok with a local doctor or nurse, or even a wife occasionally, removing sutures. Its the "putting in the sutures" that is the hard part, not the taking out.

 

Now the problem is that most people don't know when to worry about postop problems...so coming back at day 7 is important to make sure nothing bad is going on and to reassure the patient.

 

For example, we did a small 1300 graft case Friday. The guy did fine. Super easy case, no bleeding.

 

Saturday, I told him I'd be in the office, if he had any worries, just show up.

 

Sunday I hear from him, says he's been bleeding alot and its really swolen.... When I saw him, it looked perfect! But he was nervous as many guys are. It was easy for me to see him and tell him the few drops he saw on the pillow were nothing to worry about, and to go home and have a good week til I see him Friday. Had he lived a plane ride away, I suspect he'd have either toughed it out and been worried the entire week; or he'd have paid 200.00 to go to an ER where they wouldn't have known what they were looking at anyway. And had there been a real problem, which fortunately ALMOST never occurs, then someone would have done something that may have jeopardized the result of the case.

 

So being nearby is usually just for reassurance and for travelers, having a camera to email pics to your doctor is a reasonable second best option.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

I agree with everything Dr. Lindsey said. I also would always prefer that someone in the medical field take out the sutures. This way they can fill out my post op suture removal form that I provide for the out of town patients. I prefer not to use dissolvable sutures because when there is a problem it usually is not detected until scar tissue has already formed. Having the patient follow up in 7-10 days is a good thing.