US3487836A - Surgical strip stitch - Google Patents

Description

WW w. NIEBEL. ETAL SURGICAL STRIP STITCH Filed July 16, 196B BENJAMIN w. mesa men/mo w. STOVEP FORNEY o. INNER United States Patent Office 3,487,836 Patented Jan. 6, 1979 U.S. Cl. 128-335 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A unitary inverted U-shaped member having flexible adhesive strips attached on the extremities thereof and extending outwardly therefrom for attachment to the skin on either side of a wound bridged by the U-shaped member, with a skin engaging projection extending inwardly from each side wall of the U-shaped member, and extending downwardly beneath the plane of the adhesive strips such that the skin engaging projections of opposite side walls terminate in spaced relation with each other and have blunt nonpenetrating end portions adapted to clamp the edges of a wound together in a peak therebetween so that the flesh along the line of the wound is permanently held in an inverted position to promote healmg.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of our copending application Ser. No. 530,081, filed Feb. 25, 1966, for Strip-Stitch, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to surgical stitch clamp devices to close and retain opposite edges of a wound in closed position for healing. The primary object of the surgical strip stitch of the invention is to provide an immediate means of closure of wounds resulting from accident even in cases where a surgeon is not immediately available. The device may serve as a means of temporal stitching in severe wounds, until the services of a surgeon or physician are available, and in less severe wounds, the strip stitch device will provide adequate closure for lacerated or incised dermis without need for any other stitching operation.

Thus, for wounds of minor magnitude the surgical strip stitch device can replace the conventional thread with its painful insertion which many times necessitates anesthesia or local anesthetics. It also avoids the insertion of a foreign body into the tissues which poses the threat of additional infection or stitch abscess.

Stitch clamps are known in the prior art but all such known devices, which provide adequate closure of the wound for healing, have sharp teeth or barbs thereon which penetrate into the flesh on opposite sides of the wound to pull the edges of the wound together. However, the penetration of the teeth in these devices into the flesh increase the possibility of scarring, upon healing of the wound, because the teeth are adding additional punctures in the flesh adjacent the laceration they are assisting to close. The insertion of these additional foreign bodies into the tissues also pose just as great a threat of infection and abscess as is encountered when a needle is used for thread-type stitches and the like; so they do not overcome these problems.

The prior art devices also are designed to retain opposite edges of a wound in an impinging relationship, whereas it is well known that if the flesh is peaked at the edges of the wound to provide an eversion thereof, the wound will heal more quickly and with less scarring. The majority of the prior art devices do not position the edges of a wound in a peak or everted position, and those which do, either require two separate cumbersome clamps or sharp teeth for penetrating the flesh along opposite edges of the wound. The unitary surgical strip stitch of the present invention provides a means for the noninfective and painless closure without producing any additional punctures in the skin, and everts the edges of the wound, thus hastening healing of the wound and minimizing the resulting scar upon healing of the wound.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The fundamental strip stitch mechanism is two adhesive strips joined together by a Ushaped bridge of ductile material which, when its lateral ends are compressed so that the yield point of the bridge is exceeded, a permanent deformation will take place putting both adhesive strips in tension; thus assuring continued tight closure of the wound. The magnitude of this compression of the lateral ends of said bridge will vary from zero to an extensive amount depending upon the severity of the wound and resulting width of the closure. The bridge includes two or more angulated skin engaging members on each abutment or leg of the bridge. These skin engaging members have blunt terminal portions which contact the skin on either side of the wound without penetration. This firm contact will allow the skin on either side of the wound to be everted and pinched or held firmly together between the skin engaging members when the two adhesive strips are in place. A subsequent compression of the bridge, as mentioned above, to put a permanent set in the U-shaped member, will increase the peaking and butting together of the distal and proximal sides of the wound.

In addition to the uses previously outlined herein, in post-operative wounds after conventional stitches have been removed, the strip stitch may be employed by patients themselves, for a period of a few weeks, to lessen scarring or in the case of keloid formers to lessen unsightly Scarring.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the surgical strip stitch of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view thereof and particularly showing the skin engaging projections having relatively wide blunt terminal surfaces; and

FIG. 3, is a side elevational view of the strip stitch showing the permanent deformation thereof in dotted lines and showing the manner in which the edges of a wound are held in exerted position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring more particularly to the drawings, ametallic U-shaped bridge 2, formed from a piece of unitary strip material, has a pair ofleg members 4 and 5 extending downwardly from a center deformable arch section. Theterminal portions 7 and 8 ofleg members 4 and 5, respectively, are disposed at substantially right angles to the respective leg members and extend outwardly from the U-shaped member. Thin strips offlexible material 1 and 3, with adhesive backing-on the lower surface thereof, each has a terminal end securely joined to theterminal portions 7 and 8, respectively of the leg members.

As shown more particularly in FIGS. 1 and 2, at least a singleskin engaging projection 6 is struck out of each of theleg members 4 and 5 and bent inwardly obtuse angles to the leg members, such that the skin engaging projections of opposite leg members extend inwardly toward each other, as shown in FIG. 3, and downwardly beneath the plane of theterminal portions 7 and 8 of the leg members and theadhesive strips 1 and 3. The skinengaging projections 6 are connected to the U-shaped member substantially at the junctions of the leg members and the respective outwardly extending terminal portions. Since the skinengaging projections 6 are struck from the walls of the leg members 4 and they are the same thickness throughout as the leg members. Theend portions 9 of the skinengaging projections 6 are relatively blunt, as shown in the drawings, since the projections are substantially square in shape and may be somewhat tapered. With this configuration, the end portions provide relatively wide terminal surfaces for engaging the skin.

When the surgical strip stitch is applied to the wound, one of the thin adhesive strips is placed on one side of the wound and pressed firmly in place. The device is then pulled laterally toward the wounds so that the adhesive strip that is adhered to the skin draws additional skin toward the wound to peak the skin adjacent opposite edges of the wound upwardly between the terminating end portions of the spacedskin engaging projections 6. These projections pressing with their blunt end portions downwardly into the skin increase the peaking of the skin and retain the skin pinched between the projections in peaked relation. In this position the edges of the wound are in a side-by-side everted position beneath thewindow 10 in the center arch section of the U-shaped member which permits constant visibility of the closure and also permits free circulation of air above the wound to facilitate rapid healing. The second adhesive strip is then adhered to the skin on the opposite side of the wound after the skin on that side of the wound is pushed toward the wound and up between theprojections 6. Theadhesive strips 1 and 3 are thus in tension.

Subsequently, the leg members 4 and'S of the U-shaped members are squeezed together by pliers or the like, as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 3, so that the yield point of the arch section is exceeded to put a permanent set in the U-shaped member, thus drawing theblunt end portions 9 of the skin engaging projections closer together to more positively pinch and clamp together the distal and proximal sides of the wound and retain the edges of the wound in the everted position. The relatively wideterminal surfaces 9 of the projections remain in nonpenetrating pinching abutment with the skin surface and the adhesive strips which are retained in a state of tension cooperate with the projections to maintain the flesh firmly and securely in a peaked healing position between the blunt projections to minimize scarring.

We claim:

1. A strip stitch device for use in clamping the edges of a wound together so as to form an eversion of the flesh in the line of the wound, comprising in combination: an inverted unitary U-shaped member having a center arch section with depending leg members extending downwardly from the center arch section, said leg members having substantially flat inner and outer wall surfaces, said leg members having terminal portions disposed at substantially right angles thereto and extending outwardly therefrom, first and second flexible adhesive strip members attached to said respective terminal portions and extending outwardly therefrom, at least a single skin engaging projection on the inner wall surface of each leg member, the said skin engaging projections of opposite leg members extending inwardly and downwardly toward each other beneath the plane of the terminal portions of said leg members and having relatively blunt end portions terminating in spaced relation and adapted to pinch and peak the flesh adjacent opposite edges of the wound.

2. A strip stitch device as set forth in claim 1 in which said relatively blunt end portions on said skin engaging projections comprise relatively wide terminal surfaces.

3. A strip stitch device as set forth in claim 1 in which said at least a single skin engaging projection of each leg member is struck inwardly from and is integral with the respective leg member and is connected to the leg member substantially at the junction of the leg member and the respective outwardly extending terminal portion.

4. A strip stitch device as set forth inclaim 3 in which said at least a single skinengaging projection of each leg member extends at an obtuse angle to said respective leg member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 765,793 7/1904 Ruckel 128-335 2,371,978 3/1945 Perham 128-335 2,472,009 5/1949 Gardner 128337 3,068,870 12/1962 Levin 128-337 FOREIGN PATENTS 419,096 12/1910 France.

358,383 10/1931 Great Britain.

DALTON L. TRULUCK, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 128-337, 346

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