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To the Editor:
The vertical mattress suture has the advantage of finely everting skin edges, eliminating dead space, closing wounds under moderate tension, and increasing wound tensile strength during the early period of wound healing.1, 2 The ''near-far-near-far'' suture is a variant of the vertical mattress.3 From the skin surface, it ap- pears identical to the traditional and shorthand vertical mattress sutures; however, the two loops cross each other within the dermis. The near-far-near-far suture is useful for elevating the deep tissue of a wound and promoting skin eversion.3
One of the main disadvantages of the ''near-far- near-far'' suture is difficulty in removing the suture. As healing tissue swell, the suture tends to be buried, which disturbs the patient for the removal of the suture because of the difficulty. Gaping may also occur owing to overeversion.
We describe a modification of the ''near-far-near- far'' suture in which the exposed portion of the suture is interlocked with itself. The locking procedure does not waste significant time in suturing and greatly fa- cilitates suture removal. The external segment of the suture is longer and the knot is placed near the center of the wound, which...