Allergy To Self-dissolving Suture Material

[Rickiesmom]

Rickie had surgery 3 weeks ago to remove a tumour from his chest. Everything went well, and overall the incision is healing, however, we have had a couple of seromas, a small one of which burst today, and there are areas where the suture line has opened a bit and there is redness and swelling.

 

The surgeon used the same suture materials as he did on Rickie last year in a much more invasive surgery, but is wondering if maybe he is having an allergic reaction this time. He wants him back for regular monitoring, and we are to keep the area cleaned with saline, and continue with warm compresses a few times per day.

 

Before anyone questions the skill of the surgeon, I just want to say he is superb.

 

If anyone else has run into an allergic reaction like this, I would be interested to know how the symptoms presented and what you did to manage it.

[Guest Energy11]

I have never heard of an allergic reaction to suture material, but anything is possible. Sounds more like an infection to me. But, as you mentioned, the surgeon is very good, so, I'd trust his/her diagnosis. Good Luck and lots of hugs from here.

[Rickiesmom]

Dee I asked about infection as that was what I thought when I brought Rickie in. The surgeon said no and as you know, I totally trust him.

 

There are no other signs, i.e., no temperature, no heat at the site, no puss, etc., so although like you I was surprised, I guess it's possible.

[Burpdog]

SieSie did. They ended up using stainless?

[Batmom]

Haven't had a reaction that bad, but did have a couple of Joseph's internal dissolving stitches not dissolve (abdominal surgery). Can't remember how long it was after the surgery that the last one showed up. Like a bubble or mini-seroma along the suture line. Looked creepy, didn't seem to hurt J at all. Doc knicked a teensy hole and plucked them out. Said it was likely because J was so lean -- wasn't enough tissue to absorb the material. Your case sounds different tho. Hope you and doc can get it figured out for your sweet little fellow.

[LuvAPuppy]

Yes, I have. My Mom's Chihuahua (known as "Wah" Say it out loud -- Wah -- you'll get it...) had an allergic reaction to her spay sutures. The vet was a volunteer shelter vet and not one I trust with surgery although he's a wonderful, intelligent man. but he gets a lot of infected incisions.... anyway her incision started to bubble and look bright red. we whisked her to the evet (before we even owned her) and they said it was NOT infected, she was allergic. a day of 3-4x applications of plain old CortAid and she was fine. Kept applying until the sutures were removed. Fortunately she lived out the rest of her life without another surgery.

[Guest TeddysMom]

I just had a little rescue girl spayed a couple of weeks ago and she began to get a swollen bubble under where they surgically glued her. I took her back to the vet, he gave her some hydroxizine for a couple of days and it began to go down. He said it was an allergic reaction to the internal stitches. She didn't get an infection and it went down on it's own.

[Guest eaglflyt]

As a human, I had a reaction to internal sutures after a c-section. Several hard lumps and itching along the incision site. Nothing came open, but it took months and months for the hard lumps to go away.

[Guest sja5032]

I had a grey who was allergic to internal sutures after a toe amp, the area was bandaged so I don't what it looked like until it was too late. I noticed sweeling on the leg above the bandage and immediatly cut it off, which removed the pressure, which led to two huge abcess-like things bursting. Long story short(er) lots of blood, hole in foot, vet decided it was an allergic reaction not infection. Took stitches out because well they were now exposed, lots of bandage changes later and the dog not longer has a hole in his foot, and is a happy healthy pet somewhere (and really good with car rides and going to the vet). I'm not positive as how you would contain it my first thought would be pred. but then with the surgery you don't want to risk infection. Maybe something milder?

[Guest mcsheltie]

I've seen allergic reactions to dissolvable sutures several times. Mine have been from spays. It looks the same as a bad infection.

[onrushpam]

We have not had allergic reactions to them, but have had many cases where they did not dissolve. In fact, one of my boys needs to go back to have another one removed. He had tendon-tightening repair done to a dislocated toe a couple of years ago and still has suture material "surfacing". Our vet's theory is greyhounds don't have enough soft tissue to dissolve/absorb the suture material in some situations. Toes are particularly problematic because there's just nothing there but bone/skin/ligaments.

 

Years ago, we had a dog with a badly broken front leg (shattered) and we had a heck of a time getting the incision to heal. 2-3 years after it finally all healed up, she started licking and messing with it. We thought perhaps a screw had worked loose or something. (Her surgical repair involved a lot of hardware!) It turned out to be undissolved suture material. Our vet pulled something like 6 inches of suture "thread" out of her leg that had been in there for YEARS!

[ivon]

When Darla first came to us she was freshly spayed and her sutures looked nasty, crusty and not the way they should at all. I took her to the vet and they determinded she was allergic to suture material. The had to put her under again, remove the inner and out stitches, replace the inner sutures with stainless steel wire, the outer ones with staples.

She healed fine after that, but because greyhound skin is so thin the inner wire started poking through after a while, so they had to open her up a third time, remove the inner stitches and staple the outside once again.