>>1189784>What is your guys feel on suture kit? I mean they are very light weight considering. A bandage and wrap will only do so much. Depending on location it may take some time to get back.I carry some of the stuff for the convenience and I'm trained to use it- if there's a lac they are appropriate for and if I want it to prevent it from reopening, rebleeding, being painful/restricting/annoying, etc during the course of the rest of a trip. For example a close friend on one trip lacerated his finger open real nicely the first night while unpacking an axe. We could have, as usually is possible, just left it to heal open, or glued it or steri stripped it, but it would have been a painful mess the rest of the trip, and he types a lot at his job and needed his finger usable soon. Nearest hospital was about 2 hours away, plus the ridiculous waiting room time, etc. Since we had 2 PAs and me there, the right equipment, and it was a very simple/clean lac, we decided to just irrigate and throw some sutures in it ourselves. Took 30 min and rest of the trip was great.
The other scenario with suturing, that I would strongly advise against ever allowing to happen, is I think what you're getting at when you say "it may take some time to get back," IE something really NEEDS to be closed due to the depth or location or some other factor and you can't get definitive treatment within the 12-24 hr golden period for primary closure. That's really not an acceptable situation to put yourselves in on a trip. You should always have a plan for possible evacuation within a few hours if needed, whether it's via the nearest road, calling local police/rescue, a satellite phone, etc. If you truly can't have those things you should have a HIRED expedition physician for the trip who is both qualified to deal with it properly on the spot AND is legally protected from adverse outcomes of doing so. Even I wouldn't mess with stuff like that without lawyers and signatures involved beforehand.
