Stitches

How many stitches per inch for lacerations?

How do doctors know how many stitches to give someone for a cut? How many per inch? Does it depend on the deepness of the cut?

Public Comments

1. The location of the wound has a lot to do with how many stitches there are per inch. A cut on your arm will not get as many stitches as a cut on your finger. The bending that is done while the wound is healing has a lot to do with it. When you bend a finger, you stretch the skin. A wound on your forearm does not bend. For deeper wounds there may be internal stitches which realky don't fall into the same category.
2. Doctors don't really plan "I'm going to give this person 5 stitches"-- they start stitching and stop when the wound is closed. However many stitches it takes to properly close the wound is how many they give. The location of the cut, the depth, and the width will all affect how many stitches are given, but a good rule of thumb is about 1 stitch per cm, or 5 stiches to an inch.