Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
SPECIAL FEATURES
Sutures (stitches) have been used to close wounds for eons, and even in their most basic form they continue to be used even where high levels of technology are present and easily available. QuickClose Suture technology is Lucerne Biological System's entry into this most basic piece of the medical technology market. Whereas at first appearance, QuickClose appears to be yet another simple traditional suture, the extensive use of memory plastic throughout the suture along with a bioabsorbable power source actually allows the suture itself to perform the final approximation and securing stages of the suturing process, eliminating about half of the work involved in traditional suturing. This can save time for medical professionals, and even allows laymen to easily conduct basic laceration repairs on their own. QuickClose has been slow to make headway into the medical market for traditional healthcare systems and especially among dedicated surgeons, but it has grown to be fairly popular in busy emergency rooms, military medical circles, and wilderness adventuring clubs. QuickClose is a common item in many of Lucerne Biological Systems medpacs and medkits.
- Intent: To make a Lucerne Biological Systems specific version of a suture
- Image Source: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: N/A
- Name: QuickClose series AutoSuture
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Biological Systems
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Concord, Lucerne Biological Systems customers
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Modularity: different sizes and lengths of thread
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: braided Memory-plastic thread and suture needle, miniaturized hydro-glycolic fuel cell
SPECIAL FEATURES
- AutoSuture: QuickClose is unusual in that it is largely automated. To use QuickClose, the user presses the QuickClose needle through one piece of the target material and repeats this process about four more times, choosing insertion sites to form a rough perimeter of the area intended to be closed. Upon entering through the material the 5th time, a mechanical striker within the needle head initiates the hydro-glycolic fuel cell to start heating up, which in turn warms the entire length of the QuickClose Suture, causing it to attempt to return to its original pre-formed shape - that of a tightly coiled ball of string. QuickClose's thread rapidly shrinks and attempts to pull itself into this ball, thus applying tension at all of the needle's prior insertion points and pulling them towards the center of this area. Ideally, this causes the entire wound to be closed. Otherwise, any extra organic material or remaining gaps in the wound typically end up at this centerpoint, where extraneous organic tissue can be debrided or another QuickClose inserted to more fully close a remaining gap. Consequently, the actual results of this suturing tend to be highly variable, depending on the user's skill and careful placement of the needle points as well as the qualities of the patient and wound itself. Skilled healthcare providers can use QuickClose to easily mimic the performance of traditional sutures but with much less time and effort. Conversely, a first-timer layman user might close a wound, but it may use more suturing material than an expert needs and the wound approximation might be rather poor, leading to noticeable scarring once the wound heals.
- Biodegradable: QuickClose is entirely biodegradeable, with the memory-plastic thread and needle entirely dissolving within the normal body in about one week, and the remaining glycerol and water of the fuel cell entering the body's vascular system within an hour or two of the suture being placed. This means that the sutures do not need to be removed at a later date, unlike many traditional sutures. It also means that QuickClose can be used for deep tissue repair. It's entirely possible to fix a deep and complex wound by using multiple AutoSutures at different levels/layers of the wound.
- Different Sizes: QuickClose comes in a variety of thread sizes and lengths, allowing a packet of QuickClose to be available for a variety of different wounds. As with traditional sutures, larger threads and needles are typically used for larger wounds or wounds where more tension is needed to keep the wound closed (such as on joints), whereas smaller threads are typically used on areas where scarring needs to be minimal and where less tension tends to occur (such as on the face).
- Multipurpose: While designed to be used on organic beings as a medical repair device, it can be used in a pinch to repair cloths or sew different items together. As with closing the wounds on a body, the durability and appearance of these efforts is largely dependent on the skill of the user.
- AutoSuture: QuickClose partially automates the sometimes labrous process of suturing a wound, making it quicker for healthcare professionals to accomplish their tasks, and providing an ability for the unskilled layman to patch up their own wounds or those of a comrade in the field where professional medical care is not readily available.
- Decreased Wound Aesthetics: While it's actually possible to end up with equivalent scar tissue and wound appearance at the end stage of wound healing, in some instances (especially with layman use), the actual approximation of the wound margins through the autosuture process tends to be less precise than traditional suturing techniques, leading to more noticeable scars from larger gaps or jagged approximation edges. This has led to the derogatory term "AutoSuture hack" within the galactic medical community, which typically refers to a careless medical professional and/or uneducated amateur trying to perform their own medical work.
Sutures (stitches) have been used to close wounds for eons, and even in their most basic form they continue to be used even where high levels of technology are present and easily available. QuickClose Suture technology is Lucerne Biological System's entry into this most basic piece of the medical technology market. Whereas at first appearance, QuickClose appears to be yet another simple traditional suture, the extensive use of memory plastic throughout the suture along with a bioabsorbable power source actually allows the suture itself to perform the final approximation and securing stages of the suturing process, eliminating about half of the work involved in traditional suturing. This can save time for medical professionals, and even allows laymen to easily conduct basic laceration repairs on their own. QuickClose has been slow to make headway into the medical market for traditional healthcare systems and especially among dedicated surgeons, but it has grown to be fairly popular in busy emergency rooms, military medical circles, and wilderness adventuring clubs. QuickClose is a common item in many of Lucerne Biological Systems medpacs and medkits.
