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Decision Report 201904131

  • Case ref:
    201904131
  • Date:
    June 2020
  • Body:
    Lothian NHS Board - Acute Division
  • Sector:
    Health
  • Outcome:
    Not upheld, no recommendations
  • Subject:
    clinical treatment / diagnosis

Summary

Miss C attended the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh A&E having cut her lower right leg. The wound was treated with wound closure strips and a dry dressing. Miss C complained that it was not appropriate to treat her wound with strips and that they should have been sutured as she developed an infection and required further treatment. The board explained that wounds on the lower leg take longer to heal, are more prone to infection and it is unlikely suturing would have resulted in a different outcome.

We took independent advice from a medical adviser. We found that the use of wound closure strips can be as effective as sutures in cuts. There was no evidence to suggest that the treatment provided was unreasonable and it would not be possible to determine whether the wound would not have become infected if it had been stitched. Therefore, we did not uphold the complaint.

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Updated: June 17, 2020