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How Healing Is Practiced
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Seton (medicine)

Surgical Procedure

A seton, or seton stitch, is a procedure that draws a strand of surgical material, typically silk suture, through an abnormal tract connecting two body structures, most often a fistula, so the tract stays open and drains while it heals instead of closing over trapped infected material. Depending on the clinical goal the material can be left loose as a temporary, palliative drain or tightened gradually so it slowly cuts through the surrounding tissue, effectively removing the fistula without conventional surgery.

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