Recent Research on Sutures vs. Staples for c-sections

[TxCat]

My impression -- anecdotal, maybe tx can chime in -- is that wound closure issues when they occur can be a real pain in the *ss. This happened to DH's colleagues wife (and fwiw it was staples and that probably informed my longstanding dislike of them) and it took multiple months for the wound to close, as in she could stick a cotton swab through her skin to the inside of her body. The wound closure stuff can be nasty . . .

Definitely. If the wound doesn't close properly the first time, by what is referred to as "primary intention", the wound then has to close by "secondary intention" so basically from the deep layers of tissue up to the superficial layers. Takes much longer, much more risk of complication.

[specialp]

I have had both types and my wound reopening happened with the sutures. I remember commenting to Bisous because mine happened a few months before hers. I think, however, it was due to the scar tissue on one side from the previous c/s which was an emergency and used staples. That one side always looked uneven. The re-opening was unfortunate, but didn't create any big issues for me. DH cleaned it out daily and healed within a month. Of course, I would do anything to avoid that due to infection risk and it is creepy seeing your stomach open, but it didn't cause me pain or hospitalization which can happen. The worst part was having to wear a maxi pad over it which was annoying.

If I were to have one again, I would leave it up to the doctor. Maybe he would prefer staples for me since I never had a reopening with those and did the one time I had sutures. No idea. The staples looked barbaric, but were fine and did the job. I think the scar looks better now.

[BunnyBee]

I've had 4 c/s at 4 different hospitals with 4 different surgeons and they've all been staples. No problems with wound closure.