As a surgeon you are trained to take sutures from superficial to deep and from deep to superficial. Sutures are of different types intermittent, continuous, locking and unlocking. This is a basic thing trained to all surgeons during their early days. We are all gaga about the success of the surgery, how the surgery was a big success after long hours of toil on the body, how the patient was painfree or mobile the next day. All this was possible only with the sutures which are put through to hold the things opened up earlier by the surgeon. The success and failure is all sutured up by the surgeon. A single suture not healing can make a successful looking operation a disaster and a misery of life for the poor patient.

As a spine surgeon for the last two decades I was extra careful when it came to suturing. Once the surgery was over, the layers of the spine were sutured with water-tight strong intermittent locking type on the fascia (covering of the muscle) which brings the muscle back together and helps in maintaining the intraabdominal pressure when the patient is up and walking the next day. Proper approximation of the subcutaneous layer is important to bring the skin closer and avoid any underlying fat necrosis or pockets for in-dwelling infection. The final layer is skin whose healing is of utmost important and the quality of the scar reflects the personality of the surgeon who performed the surgery. This quality was imbibed/ ingrained in me at a very young age and helped me sail through my years as a spine surgeon.

Recently, I utilised my same knowledge of suturing to stitching my cycling shorts which was torn. It was a paper thin Dri-fit material which was to be brought closer and stitched to avoid further damage to the garment. Both the ends were stitched with the help of continuous intermittent locking type of stitching. The stitches were undermined so they were not harsh on my skin when I wore them. The stitches were strong enough with multilayer so that they don’t open up with the rigorous cycling that I performed over the weekend.

The lesson that I learnt from this experience was that No job is small or big. Give your 100% or best to whatever you are entitled to do. The quality of work that you do reflects the personality you are. This ethics will take me for a long happy ride.