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What Causes the Body to Reject the Stitches?

How long can I expect to suffer? Can anything be done?

Doctor Answers 3

Many reasons why a suture is rejected or spit

There are a variety of suture materials available and you may be "rejecting" them for several different reasons.

Sometimes it is an immune response that can be triggered from multiple previous exposures in past surgery.

Alternatively a variety of different chemicals are now being added to sutures as antibiotics to minimize the possibility of infection. This also can cause reactions.

When sutures get contaminated, the structure of the material itself can also cause different reactions. A braided suture material is more likely to react and hold bacteria than a single stranded suture (monofilament).

Placement of the suture too close to the surface can also cause the suture to erode to the surface.

Some longer lasting sutures get ejected from the body the same way a splinter gets ejected from the skin.

As you can see there are many factors that can cause a suture to be rejected.

Chicago Plastic Surgeon
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Probably not rejecting

Stitches "spit" when the ends of the suture are too close to the skin edge. As healing occurs and the wound contracts the knot and ends of the stitches get close to and break the skin surface cause them to "spit." I suspect that if you have multiple spitting sutures it's because your surgeon did interrupted stitches along the incision line with significant knots. If you're out 6 weeks or more he should remove them as they spit then consider using different suture or a running stitch next time.

Not enought information

You need to give more information as to what is going on. What are you suffering from? What do you mean by rejection? Where on your body and when was your surgery?

Leslie H. Stevens, MD
Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon
4.0 out of 5 stars 6 reviews
