purse-string suture

[ purs-string ]

noun

, Surgery.

1. a suture for a circular opening, stitched around the edge, that closes it when pulled.

Word History and Origins

Origin of purse-string suture¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

For all the immediate gratification of the calling — they can raise the dead with a few slashes of the knife and a purse-string suture — they too are condemned to a little dithering.

From New York Times

The ulcer is to be closed by running a “purse-string” suture in the healthy tissue around it, and the place is then buried in the stomach by picking up small folds of the stomach-wall above and below it and fixing them together by suturing.

From Project Gutenberg