Obama Gets 12 Stitches in Lip After Basketball Mishap

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...ball-game.html

President Barack Obama got 12 stitches in his lip after being injured during a basketball game, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

“After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player’s elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House medical unit,” Gibbs said in a statement. The president played basketball for about 90 minutes at a gym at Fort McNair in Washington.

Obama played basketball regularly during the 2008 presidential campaign and had a basketball court installed on the South Lawn of the White House. In addition to playing at Fort McNair, he plays at other local sites, including the Interior Department.

Today, the president played with family members and friends in town for Thanksgiving, as well as with his personal aide, Reggie Love, a former college basketball player at Duke University.

Gibbs didn’t disclose who injured the president.

In treating the president, doctors used a smaller filament which increases the number of stitches but makes a tighter stitch, resulting in “a smaller scar," according to an e-mailed White House statement.

Obama received a local anesthetic while getting the stitches, the statement said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at [email protected]

I heard that too, 12 is bit too much. The maximum I have had is 5 five times on my head and it was not good feeling and 12 is twice as much plus 2. Hope for his speedy recovery.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/1...7.html#s192442

Barack Obama Gets STITCHES After Basketball Injury (PICTURES)

12 stitches means very very fine thread used and extremely cosmetic point of view procedure.

Most likely the wound will be a large through/through laceration,sutured by fine 3-0 vicryl or prolene 5-0 stitches.

^ thanks doc.
Lip cuts are mostly mesh with tooth prints, not in a straight line. So number of suture can increase manifold.

Vicryl might have been used if the wound is deeper i.e injury to orbicularis oris, then mucous membrane closed with absorbable suture line.

Instead of prolene the Nylon sutures would have been the choice of sutures for closing layer for me, since the area is going to be moist all the time and it has to soft for chewing speaking etc (Prolene will become soft after one-two days though). Circle X2 11 mm nylon needle will do the trick and serve the cosmetic cause. I think in both cases a less deeper buy mesh or deeper cut justifies 12 sutures.

I was wondering, to correct myself why would you stress on cosmetic point of view if the laceration is inside..lol.

Nylon is a better choice of sutures for oral cavity and gingival tissue.

what was secret service doing ?
Isn't their job to protect the president from all threats (foreign and domestic)... lol

serves him right for playing shitty game like basketball.

hey .. !! don't you say anything about basketball, my favorite

@ Hit/run






Dear Doc,

From the News description and picture it looks Look like as a classic case of a through and through laceration involving Lower labium skin (including vermillion border), Intraoral mucosa ,deeper layers+Orbiclaris oris . Extra orally 5-0 or 6-0 prolene sutures are used for skin closure.Thats where cosmetic angle gains significance.

An Example Given below(though this look like and resulted froma sharp instrument).










Intra oral wound approximation is normally carried out by Vicryl which is the current choice to approximate deeper layers.And the usage of nylon sutures Intra orally(in superficial layers) is also been changed to Vicryl as this will remove the hassle of suture removal at a later stage in post op cases ( as this is a resorbable material).Usage of Nylon is restricted nowa days to Intra oral surgical defects approximation or in flaps and grafts mostly pertaining to Head and Neck Oncology or in Orthognathic cases.Thank you.