METHOD OF GASTROINTESTINAL ANASTOMOSIS

THE VARIOUS methods of gastrointestinal suturing have probably received more attention through the years than any other subject in the technique of suture. This is evidenced by the great numbers of authors involved and the space and the illustrations devoted to the subject in the literature.

The origin of many types of suturing are lost in antiquity, and just when such patterns as the "cobbler's," the "furrier's," the "baseball" and "basting," and the "blanket or lock" stitch were adapted to gastrointestinal use we have been unable to determine. Many of the basic methods of suturing are still known by the names of the men who introduced them. Antoine Lembert¹ presented his inverting, interrupted, seromuscular stitch in 1826. Dupuytren advocated a continuous Lembert, and Halsted popularized his mattress variation. Czerny² contributed his interrupted suture before 1880 and advocated two layers. In 1886 Cushing³ described a right angle continuous