Evaluation and Management of Traumatic Lacerations

Each year in the United States, more than 12 million traumatic wounds are treated in emergency departments.1 When nonemergency or elective incisions are included, approximately 90 million skin-suturing procedures are performed each year.2 Traumatic lacerations occur most often in young men, typically on the face, scalp, and hands.3 More than 50 percent of all lacerations are caused by blunt injury that produces shear forces, and most others by sharp objects, such as metal, glass, and wood.3,4 Only a minority of wounds are caused by mammalian or nonmammalian bites.3 The ultimate goals of wound management are to avoid infection and . . .