In surgery or medical procedure, a ligature consists of a piece of thread ( suture) tied around an anatomical structure, usually a blood vessel, another hollow structure (e.g.

urethra The urethra (: urethras or urethrae) is the tube that connects the urinary bladder to the urinary meatus, through which Placentalia, placental mammals Urination, urinate and Ejaculation, ejaculate. The external urethral sphincter is a striated ...

) or an accessory skin tag to shut it off.

History

The principle of ligation is attributed to

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

and

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

. In

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, ligatures were used to treat hemorrhoids. Spanish Muslim doctor

Al-Zahrawi Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-'Abbās al-Zahrāwī al-Ansari (;‎ c. 936–1013), popularly known as al-Zahrawi (), Latinisation of names, Latinised as Albucasis or Abulcasis (from Arabic ''Abū al-Qāsim''), was an Arabs, Arab physician, su ...

described the procedure around the year 1000 in his book '' Kitab al-Tasrif''. The concept of a ligature was reintroduced some 500 years later by Ambroise Paré and first performed by him in the village of Damvillers. It finally found its modern use in 1870–1880, made popular by Jules-Émile Péan.

Procedure

With a blood vessel the surgeon will clamp the vessel perpendicular to the axis of the artery or vein with a hemostat, then secure it by ligating it; i.e. using a piece of suture around it before dividing the structure and releasing the hemostat. It is different from a tourniquet in that the tourniquet will not be secured by knots and it can therefore be released/tightened at will. Ligation is one of the remedies to treat

skin tag A skin tag, or acrochordon (: acrochorda), is a small benign tumor that forms primarily in areas where the Human skin, skin forms creases (or rubs together), such as the neck, armpit and groin. They may also occur on the face, usually on the ey ...

, or acrochorda. It is done by tying string or dental floss around the acrochordon to cut off the blood circulation. Home remedies include commercial ligation bands that can be placed around the base of skin tags. Complications of ligation in polydactyly treatment include infection, neuroma or cyst formation.

References

Surgical procedures and techniques {{Treatment-stub kk:Лигатура

History

Procedure

See also

References