"The Gordian knot of it he will unloose": Lessons learned from studies of half-hitch surgical knots and implications for practicing surgeons: A systematic review.

Background: Insecure surgical knots can cause surgical complications ranging from wound dehiscence to massive exsanguination and death. Most surgeons tie half-hitch knots, of which some configurations are prone to slippage. We aim to characterize the securities of different half-hitch knot configurations.