Surgeons can then place purse-string sutures at the end of the uterus to improve the chances of holding on to a pregnancy.

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.

Under his guidance she completed the ligature, made a purse-string suture, crushed the base of the appendix with a Spencer Wells, made a tight ligature above the crushed portion, then took up the scalpel for the last time and made the final cut.