Surgery

HI all, I am planning on applying for medicine as my goal is to become an awesome surgeon one day. I think orthopaedics sounds good. I want to start practising my surgical skills especially suturing skills tho. Can anyone recommend a good kit to practice on? cheers.

Reply 1

shiggydiggy

If it really tickles your fancy, you can buy a suturing kit (i.e. needledriver, forceps, scissors etc) pretty cheaply online for less than a fiver. You can also purchase synthetic skin patches for a few quid. Alternatively, you can practice on a banana which many people do. Sutures are a bit trickier to come by, but you can buy expired ones for not much (your bog standard 3-0 cutting monocryl would do).

Whether or not it would be useful to do is another thing. At the end of the day, it's your money and time, but I would be spending my energy on improving on my application if I were you.

Reply 2

Lockheedmartin

Yeah I was looking at a few of the suture kits available online it seems you can get some pretty good value kits around the £10-£20 mark. The biggest problem it seems is finding sutures I can't seem to find any old or used sutures anywhere. There are plenty of new sutures available online but they are freaking expensive. There seem to be a few more expensive kits out there that include lots of sutures in the kit. As I don't work in a hospital I can't get hold of these easily.

Has anyone tried any of the more expensive suture kits? How important is the skin model there seems to be Huge variation between different kits.

My application is looking alright at the moment. I've heard for surgery you need to really get ahead these days. My uncle who is a surgical registrar told me to start practicing surgical skills now so I don't need to worry so much when it comes to it. That's the plan anyways :smile:

Reply 3

shiggydiggy

Original post by Lockheedmartin

I hope by used you mean expired.

As alright as you think your application may be, you're still better off preparing for interviews or revising for your exams. You will be taught how to suture in medical school. It's not particularly complicated and the real skill comes with experience.

Reply 4

Letournel

If your uncle is a surgical reg, can't he just get you some sutures?

Reply 5

Helenia

Being able to tie sutures is no use at all if you don't get into/through medical school.

A significant number of med students who start out wanting to be surgeons will change their mind by the end.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

nexttime

Original post by Lockheedmartin

used sutures

I really don't think you want used sutures :wink:

By 'get ahead' doing some suturing isn't really the kind of thing that will help. Research projects, essay prizes etc are the things that will count. I think the best advice is to nail the normal things you need to get into med school: work experience, school grades, tests and interviews.

But if its just for fun then fair enough: I'm not aware of how to get hold of expired ones unfortunately. The small amount of time we've spent practicing suturing has been with used ones but i never questioned where they came from. The surgeon just seemed to know and acquire them himself... are you sure the surgeon you know can't get hold of any.

Reply 7

Lockheedmartin

I hope I don't change my mind. Surgery has always fascinated me. To be honest, I'm doing this to keep my interest in surgery and it also looks good on the application. I've been told surgery is really competitive and any head start is a good one. Got interview courses lined up and I'm getting on hard with the studying.

Anyways returning to the topic, does anyone have any experience with suture kits available? Any recommendations?

Reply 8

Masafi

I agree with the others that this isn't really going to help you into medical school. In fact I think it would stand out as odd to interviewers - most of whom will not be surgeons and might wonder why you are fixated on a specialty so early. There is much more to surgery than operating and very much more than suturing. Your time could be better spent doing other things and I would certainly not get too caught up in the idea that this is any way to get ahead at this stage.

If you just want to play then buy any skin-like material (banana skin as mentioned above), a disposable suture kit (forceps, needle holder, scissors), and a set of sutures. There are plenty for very little money on eBay.

DOI: trauma and orthopaedic trainee.

Reply 9

Lockheedmartin

Thanks will take a look on eBay. I'm not spending a lot of time of this, just find it interesting. I've done plenty for my application and will continue to do so. This is just something fun and to keep me interested.