Towards evidence based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. Conservative management or suturing for small, uncomplicated hand wounds.

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether suturing provided any advantage over conservative management for small, uncomplicated hand wounds. Only one paper presented a trial addressing the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of this paper are tabulated. The clinical bottom line is that there doesn't appear to be any great advantage to suturing. The importance of clinical evaluation, to ensure that the wound really is uncomplicated, is stressed.