Many years ago I was an Air Force medic. I sutured more people of all ages than I can possibly remember. For a few severe injuries I recall, I often wondered why I was doing it instead of a doctor on duty but those were the days when medics had to be relied upon to do everything under the sun.

I have seen a few commericially available suture kits. Most of them have instructions that say "take this kit to qualified medical personnel" or something to that effect. The trouble is, the variety of suture to match with the injury runs into the hundreds of varieties. There is a vast difference between the suture I would use on the bottom of a foot versus the face on a young lady, or to resolve deep wounds with a chromic suture. And there is a vast variety of suture thickness, flexibility, braided, non-braided, nylon, silk, etc. along with a vast variety of needle sizes and styles. There is also a variety of suturing techniques depending on the nature of the wound: soft tissue injury, muscle damage, tendon damage, vascular and nerve damage, etc.

For minor scalp lacerations, I have also used hair ties with a surgical adhesive.

A survival situation, inwhich suturing appears to be absolutely necessary, may leave you with whatever you have. But beware of complications: irritation, severe infection, drainage, reactions, fever. Proper wound prep is very important, which includes aseptic and sterile procedures that need to be followed as much as possible. There are risks: medical and potentially legal risks.

Administer first aid; then given the vast coverage of cell phones, if you can call a hospital ER and ask for medical advice, do that before attempting to suture a wound, IMHO.

I have several huge first aid kits, but no suture in them. If I were going out in the middle of nowhere, then I might add a commercially prepared suture kit. I do keep a couple of small curved needles, 6" needle holders, micro tissue forceps,one point sharp scissors, two point iris scissors and some very thin nylon unbraided thread that I could use, if I found myself in an unusual emergency situation. But even then, inspite of my experience, I would only use it with considerable caution.

I hope this war and peace post has helped answer your question.

Otherwise...beeeeee careful.