The impact of different skin Suture methods in episiotomy repair on healing and pain: A randomized clinical trial

We conducted a randomized clinical trial at a tertiary center between March and August 2022. We enrolled primiparous women aged 18-45 years requiring an episiotomy. Skin closure of the episiotomy was performed using three suture techniques: mattress, primary interrupted, and subcutaneous. Evaluation of healing and pain was carried out using Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Redness, Edema, Ecchymosis, Discharge, and Approximation (REEDA) scores on the first and fifteenth postpartum days. The interrupted and subcutaneous groups showed significantly lower VAS scores on the first postpartum day compared to the mattress group (<i>p</i> < 0.001). The duration of mattress suturing was longer than that of interrupted or subcutaneous suturing (<i>p</i> = 0.044). On the fifteenth postpartum day, the subcutaneous group demonstrated lower REEDA scores compared to the other groups (<i>p</i> = 0.013). The subcutaneous continuous suturing group exhibited superior healing compared to the primary interrupted and mattress groups on the fifteenth postpartum day.