Just curious to see how long it has taken others to heal if they had a craniotomy with dissolving stitches. My surgery was on May 05, and while a few of the scabs have flaked away on their own, and some of them show signs of slowly lifting and flaking, there is one particular section that is hard as a rock and still feels tight. My hair is already growing in over the scabs, so it's harder to see what's going on, and I try my best not to poke at it. But I do stare at it every day and wonder when it's going to heal. I saw my neurosurgeon last week and he was unconcerned, so I guess it's all normal. I'm just wondering what other people have experienced.
Hello there we’ll just to let you know I had a craniotomy May 6th of this year. I had staples i had them in for about 16 days my head has healed real well I think . I go see my Neurosurgeon for the first time this Thursday. I started wearing scarfs and them head bands also when I go out I sit out side also in the sun because I read some where the sun with its vitamin D is good for healing your bones. I also am going to try and start up something with the and headbands for my hospital they look great on they look nice and dressy so that you not always looking and then you can take it off any time. I hope all goes well and I will get back with you after Thursday Good Night . Rose
Hi Randomette,
Did you have staples or stitches in addition to your dissolving stitches? I realized I had dissolving stitches under the numerous staples in my head, as a stitch cropped up at the tail end of my scar at my forehead about a week or so after the staples had been removed--I couldn't help but to mess with it--but it freaked me out enough and i made myself ignore it (and it went away shortly after my discovery). Is the spot tender to the touch? if not I'd say not to worry about it, if so then yeah, I'd go back to see the Neurosurgeoun . Bestof luck, Peace, Janet
Hi Janet,
No staples or anything else that needs to be manually removed, just the dissolving stitches, which seem to dissolve quicker in some areas than others. I actually had the nurse cut off a piece of the stitches that were poking out from the very end of my incision and annoying the heck out of me.
Otherwise, the sensitivity has been getting better. I think most of it was itchiness as the hair was growing back in, but that's calmed down. It's just a matter of the scabs not falling off as quickly as I would like them to. I was surprised it even looked that way when the doc took the wrapping off, but nurses and doctors looked at it every day and said it looked good. I suppose I just need to be patient. If this is my biggest complaint, I probably shouldn't even be complaining. :)
I went to see the neurosurgeon yesterday after I noticed that my hat had annoyed part of my incision, and there was a little bit of puss. eek! Turns out I'm not so impatient after all. The surgeon's office was baffled by why I still have scabs almost 2 months after surgery. So, I'm going to a Wound Clinic on Friday to have them take a look at it. Fingers crossed!!
Just want to add an update here, in case anyone else runs into the same issue.
I went to the Wound Clinic today (plastic surgeon) and he removed the scabs so that he could see what was happening with the incision site. Removing the scabs was actually very quick and not tooooo painful. What he found underneath is that I still have some open wound areas. He assured me it actually looked good, all in all, and now that the scabs are off the whole thing should heal up nicely. I'm applying Bacitracin daily and taking an oral antibiotic.
His best guess as to why I didn't heal as expected is that perhaps my body/skin pushed the dissolvable stitches out a bit too early. But hopefully this is the last step toward getting this thing completely and happily healed. Fingers crossed.
1 Like
My surgeon didnt use stitches, he used glue. Except for a bump over my left temple and a very small scar, I look normal.
Ive had a craniotomy for a MCA biufurcation 15 days ago. My stitches are disovable but none have started to dissolve yet. The site looks clean, by this i mean no infection, but does have some scabs at spots and is sore to touch and a few days ago I felt pulling sensations which eased with use of Vaseline ( petroleum Jelly) on it. I’m wondering if anyone can tell me how long the stitches take to dissolve and is it normal to feel pulling at the Insision site.
Thanks for your input