LOS ANGELES STITCH DOCTOR
Kare Plastic Surgery + Skin Health Center is pleased to provide emergency service for laceration repair and sutures in the Los Angeles area. As board-certified plastic surgeons, we provide urgent solutions for cuts, scrapes, and abrasions that require immediate attention and care. A laceration is a traumatic cut in the skin which often requires emergency repair to bridge the gap left behind from the cut. Most patients benefit from early emergency care to repair the wound and reconnect the skin edges.
If you have sustained a cut in the skin as a result of a sharp wound or blunt injury, you may hear the term laceration described by plastic surgeons and medical professionals to describe a traumatic tear in the skin. Lacerations are among the most common reasons for healthy children and adults to visit the emergency room or see convergency care emergency care. Adults usually sustain sharp lacerations as a result of a cut or scrape, whereas children often experience traumatic crush injuries and breaks in the skin as a result of a fall or slip.Dr. Raffy Karamanoukian and colleagues are available on-call for emergency suture repair of lacerations and cuts at an accredited ambulatory surgical center in Santa Monica or by arrangement at Providence St. Johns Hospital Urgent Care. Expertise in plastic surgery laceration repair can help mitigate scarring and can help you achieve the best longterm cosmetic outcome.
There are many benefits of choosing the Los Angeles Stitch Doctor rather than exploring your options at a neighborhood emergency room or urgent care. On-call plastic surgeons with board-certification and expertise in wound management can manage your condition and provide up-to-the-minute guidance and care. Our plastic surgeon specialists will contact you and arrange a mutually-appropriate time to undergo your suture repair in a professional, licensed, and state-of-the-art surgical center.
How to Manage an Emergency Laceration
When an accidental laceration occurs, there are many immediate steps that should be taken in order to optimize your care. You may want to wash the area gently with a mild soap and flowing water; and it's usually best not to be alarmed by bleeding as this may occur with any cut into the skin. It is important to seek the immediate recommendations of a plastic surgeon or emergency room doctor if there is ongoing bleeding or injury to an important neurovascular structure within the skin. Time is of essence. Once you clean the wound, examine it briefly and take a photograph so that the wound does not have to be unwrapped by the physicians to examine the wound. Wrap the area with a clean dressing or cloth and apply mild to moderate compression to stop any residual bleeding .
Easy Steps to Laceration Repair
- Secure a suitable dressing on the wound to minimize contamination of the cut and minimize bleeding.
- Make sure that you inquire about any foreign bodies, splinters, or fragments within the cut.
- Call 911 for an emergency requiring an ambulance; if there is loss of consciousness, a serious accident, or a serious medical condition.
- Contact (310) 998-5533. Note that we will be unable to make recommendations on the phone and our emergency laceration service is only reserved for isolated cuts and lacerations requiring stitches. We cannot replace an emergency room for acute medical care.
- We accept pediatrician and internist referrals. We will gladly provide insurance codes for billing, but do not take insurance for emergecy services rendered. There will be a fee for evaluation and management of the laceration.
Urgent Care or Emergency Room or Stitch Doctor for a laceration?
If you or your child is injured and/or sustained a laceration to the skin, you may consider many options for stitch repair including an urgent care, emergency room, or Stitch Doctor to help repair the cut. In either case, immediate attention to the cut is important including proper wound care, antimicrobials, and proper medical care. In the absence of any life-threatening problems, an isolated cut or laceration to the skin is usually best repaired by a board-certified plastic surgeon who understands the scope of wound healing and scar management. Laceration repair with stitches doesn't stop with the repair, but continues afterwards with proper wound care and scar treatments. We feel that Kare Plastic Surgery is the optimal center for the management of lacerations in Los Angeles. If you have sustained a skin cut or injury, call our office and our emergency team will be contacted immediately.
About Us
Dr. Raffy Karamanoukian is the Surgical Director of Kare Plastic Surgery & Skin Health Center in Santa Monica and leads a team of board-certified plastic surgeons who are dedicated to the emergency management of lacerations and complex soft tissue injuries of the face and body. Our surgical team of physicians, nurses, and physician-assistants have undergone rigorous training at the nation's top academic centers and all possess a fundamental expertise in complex soft tissue trauma management and repair. We are dedicated to treating adults and children in a professional, ethical, and comfort-driven manner.
As a surgeon, Dr. Karamanoukian is an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and maintains active clinical privileges at Providence St. John's Hospital. He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Medicine and received training at UC San Diego and UC Irvine Departments of Surgery. Immediate evaluation and management of skin lacerations and soft tissue injuries including dog bites, traumatic cuts, and lacerations are often referred to us by pediatricians, adult internal medicine physicians, urgent care centers, and hospital emergency rooms.
If you are looking for a plastic surgeon with dedication and expertise in the management of emergency lacerations, we are available for same-day and emergency evaluations. Our treatments can vary from reassurance, laser treatments, skin dermabond glue, stitches, to soft tissue repair and wound management.
deciding on whether you need stitches for your laceration is not only is not always an easy decision, even for trained medical professionals and plastic surgeons. Usually, a train plastic surgeon can identify questionable lacerations that may require flap reconstruction, suture repair, derma bond glue, or simple wound closure. We encourage patients to seek emergency care with a recognized and topped plastic surgeon as early as possible once the wound is stabilized and the bleeding has been controlled. Minor injuries may have impaired skin perfusion or have deeply embedded cuts that may not be visible readily. Deciding on whether your wound or laceration may require stitches depends on a number of factors , including the following:
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Recurrent or uncontrolled bleeding, a wound that cannot be properly cleaned.
- A deep scar with tension
- A laceration around the eyes or nose
- A laceration on a joint or functionally mobile part of the body
- A wound or laceration caused by a human, cat, or animal bite including dogs
- Foreign objects within a scar for Cut
- Lacerations that impair functional mobility
- A cosmetically identifiable Cut
- A laceration on a cosmetically sensitive area
- A jagged or irregular cut
- Skin edges that are poorly perfused and lack a good blood supply
- Finger lacerations
- Crush injuries
- Loss of skin tissue that may impair optimal wound healing
The most common question that patients ask plastic surgeons after a skin laceration or injury is whether the cut actually needs stitches. The question is complex I can be divided into small algorithms based on specifics of the laceration. Basically, skin lacerations on cosmetically sensitive areas of the face often require stitches to carefully re-approximate skin tissue to avoid long-term and permanent scarring that can affect the cosmetic appearance of the facial skin. It's quite obvious in certain circumstances, such as a large laceration on the eyebrow, that stitches are necessary to re-approximate the skin and minimize the collagen scarring that may lead to a long-term visible star. In smaller, less visible lacerations, alternatives to stitches may be acceptable such as derma bond glue or bandaging in order to attempt a re-approximation of the cut skin. It is always prudent to Ar towards a more conservative approach which includes a visit to a plastic surgeon, wound assessment and cleaning, and surgical repair to the best extent possible. A delay in diagnosis and management may harm your chances of having a fairly imperceptible scar.
Dr. Raffy Karamanoukian provides expertise in laceration management and his Santa Monica plastic surgery Center located on Montana Avenue. Our office is a fully equipped plastic surgery center that specializes in laceration repair, scar and wound management, and post treatment scar therapy protocols in order to minimize long-term scarring . We have many lasers and scar therapy protocols that can reduce the textual, pigmentary, and contour related issues of scarring on the skin.
Our stitch MD experts include clinical nurses, cosmetic plastic surgeons, plastic surgery wound care specialists, on-call emergency room physicians, and pediatricians who can help you manage your laceration in a timely manner. Contact the stitch doctor in Los Angeles.
Stitch Removal After Emergency Suture of Lacerations
- How do you know when your sutures are ready to come out? Depending on whether the stitches are internal or external, facial or body, and whether the stitches are absorbable or synthetic; Dr. Karamanoukian, our board-certified plastic surgeon, will determine the right time to have your sutures removed. Usually this is when the skin has completely healed over and the wound is intact. Different stitches have different time periods of longevity and some have to be taken out much earlier.
- Is it possible to take out your stitches too early? Stitches should coapt the skin so that the wound heals well. Taking them out too early, or too late may compromise wound healing. This is why we are the top urgent care plastic surgery center in Los Angeles for stitches, wound care, and scar removal treatments.
- Can I exercise before my stitches come out? Depending on the type of stitches you have and the area of the injury, you may be able to exercise so long as the wound healing is not compromised. Stitches on the extremities or body may open up if there is excess tension on the skin. Dr. Karamanoukian can help you manage your incisions and stitches after repair.
- Will an MD remove my stitches? A clinical nurse, physician assistant, or surgeon will evaluate your wound and remove your stitches.
- Can I have my skin staples removed at Kare Plastic Surgery? Skin staples can be removed within ten days of placement. If there is a reason for you to keep them in longer, please call our office to make accomodations.
Scar Cream Recommendations after Laceration Repair
We often see two different types of acute scarring immediately after a laceration repair. Since the skin is traumatized, there may be a transient period of redness and swelling which can be treated with Plato's Scar Serum applied twice daily to the incision site. The redness often represents increased vascularity as the wound is healing. Sometimes the redness may last months to years, making the scar serum an ideal choice for early or late scars.
Scars that are hyperpigmented and dark are also quite common. We manage these dark scars on the face or body with Melarase AM and Melarase PM creams applied on the skin twice daily. The combination of SPF 30, skin lighteners, and topical skin discoloration modulators make these creams the ideal choice for dark and discolored scars.
If you have sustained an emergency laceration that requires immediate care, please call our 24 hour emergency line and speak to a knowledgeable specialist who can help you obtain the best surgical care in Los Angeles. Call
(310) 998-5533 and speak to a patient care coordinator.