Suture & Stitch Kits - Skin Staplers & Removal Tools

While there are skin staple remover kits available, it’s always a good idea to let a medical professional handle your staple removal. After sterilizing the area, they’ll use a staple extractor to carefully reach under each staple and guide it out of the skin. After carefully removing all the staples from your skin, a sterile strip will be placed over the area to give it time to fully heal.

Generally, staples that are put in with a medical skin stapler should be removed within 14 days of your surgery. In some situations, your doctor may want to remove them earlier, sometimes in as little as 4 days. If they are left under the skin, it may be more painful to remove them, or it could even cause long-term scarring around the area.

Fortunately, stitch removal is generally painless and can easily be done by a medical professional. After the correct amount of time has passed and your doctor feels that the site has healed appropriately, they will use a basic stitch removal kit to clip each stitch near where it’s knotted. Then, they’ll gently pull the suture away from the skin and dispose of it appropriately.

It’s always advisable to listen to your doctor, who can tell you the correct amount of time that must elapse before stitches are removed. This time depends on a variety of factors, including the type of stitches used. Liquid stitches (a type of surgical glue) do not need to be removed. Traditional nonabsorbable stitches do need to be removed, and if they’re left in the skin it can cause permanent scarring.

If your doctor used dissolvable or absorbable stitches, there’s no need for any type of surgical stitch removal. Most of these stitches should either dissolve away or fall out by themselves. This can take as little as a few weeks, but some types of dissolvable stitches are designed to remain in place for several months. Be sure not to agitate them during the healing period.

The amount of sutures, stitches, or staples used per inch of skin varies greatly depending on the wound or incision in question, but generally, doctors consider 6 stitches per inch of skin to be the average. The actual number you receive will depend on the position of the wound, and its depth and width.

After your stitches are removed, your doctor should advise you on the correct treatment plan. Many people use petroleum jelly and a bandage, while others opt for a more natural process using therapeutic Manuka honey on the stitches. Just make sure that whatever you use does not stick to the wound and irritate it. Do not use hydrogen peroxide or alcohol on the stitch site, as it can irritate it and slow healing.

In the first days after your stitches are inserted, yellow skin around the area is normal. This coloring is associated with bruising and is a typical physical response following the closure of a wound or incision. It should fade within a few days and shouldn’t be a cause for concern. However, if the yellow color turns red or feels swollen around your sutures, stitches, or staples after a few days, it’s a good idea to consult a doctor.

Although laypeople often use the words stitches and sutures interchangeably, they are actually two different types of medical wound closures. Sutures are the strands that are used to close the wound (often found as part of a suture kit), while stitching refers to the technique used.