Suture needles

Re: Suture needles

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:18:49 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]Where are you getting your needles from?[/quote]I had a quick look, they are Barber needles and the nurses will order them from NVS but they last so long they are a rare purchase.

Re: Suture needles

Bob Russell — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:52:35 GMT

Is the website duplicating posts again?

Re: Suture needles

Bob Russell — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:50:48 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

Don't know what you lot are doing then. We have a couple of needle sizes in each surgical kit in a swab, I know the swab is there so separate the needles before I start - it is quite simple really. I can re-use needles many times before they go blunt, maybe its something to do with surgical technique in different hands? I would think the needles need changing less than 1:20-30 ops.There is then a stainless steel container with a whole selection of sizes if needed as a back-up.

Of greater concern to me is the number of hypodermic needles with pre-filled vaccine syringes that are blunt and you don't find out until you use them and the puppy/kitten jumps or you feel it snag as it goes through the skin. Maybe vaccine companies use the cheapest syringes/needles to keep costs down

[/quote]

Where are you getting your needles from? It could be that different manufacturers produce needles with differing grades of steel. Ours are from JAK and do last quite well!

Re: Suture needles

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 11:23:46 GMT

Re: Suture needles

Thomas Johnson — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 09:08:36 GMT

[quote user="Nicola Lawlor"]

[/quote]

We do the same, if I use a needle and it is blunt I will throw it away, but otherwise it gets re-sterilised. Packing them separately from the kits seems to have made a big difference to how many blunt ones I find.

Re: Suture needles

Nicola Lawlor — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:46:40 GMT

We have needles in swabs but sterilised separately to the kits so we only open a pack on the occasions where we need a separate needle. This way they are only autoclaved as needed and not every time a kit is opened. I throw away any used ones after that first use however, but of course the rest of the needles from that pack will be resterilised. I think that way we have less chance of blunting in the autoclave and minimal risk of picking up a needle infested swab for mopping up blood etc. I like the idea of the jcloth mentioned above though...may swap to using that.

Re: Suture needles

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:53:51 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]We have ours in little plastic containers from Vet Instrumentation. Had them for years so not sure if they are still available.[/quote]

Small animal one:

http://www.vetinst.com/product.php?productid=614&cat=0&page=1

Farm animal one:

http://www.vetinst.com/product.php?productid=4504&cat=0&page=1

They seem to last and last. Never had to replace a little box yet. We have a couple of boxes of needles sterilised especially for the 'blunt' needle scenario.

Re: Suture needles

Utlendigur — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:37:52 GMT

[quote user="Suzanne Kelly"]We currently have them on a swab in our surgical packs,[/quote]

We used to do that but I found that in a hurry it was fairly common to pick up the swab with the needles in rather than an empty one leading to ripped gloves, or damage to to op site - so now we use a strip of J-cloth for the needles and it works well. We only tend to use them for skin, and just bin them if they start to get blunt

Re: Suture needles

Busybee — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:28:55 GMT

I hate blunt needles! The nurses insist on keeping sterilising them, I just throw them away!

We now have little plastic boxes to sterilise them in which seem to work well. Our branch practice uses small metal mint tins. We went through a period of sterilising them on sponges which just end up disintegrating, or swabs which was just a disaster!

Re: Suture needles

Bob Russell — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 17:25:33 GMT

We have ours in little plastic containers from Vet Instrumentation. Had them for years so not sure if they are still available. They sterilise well.

Not sure the needles are that much cop anyway nowadays. New ones seem blunt whereas the swaged ones just glide through tissue. I use them mainly for skin but bin them pretty quickly!