Eye Cutter Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 sure, medical grade cyanoacrylate is used a lot these days. excellent for closing incisions. i had a patient who accidentally squirted a tube of superglue in her eyes! had to surgically remove all the glue and open her eyes back! Ouch!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehli Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Has no one but me Ramboed it and thrown some gun powder in a wound and lit it? To quote Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: "I keed, I keed!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin c Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 There are a few points worth remembering about using the cyanoacrylate compounds for wound repair. First, EricW is right - sealing bacteria and other foreign material into a wound is a surefire way of getting a really nasty infection. Deep and contaminated wounds, or wounds with badly damaged tissue need thorough cleaning, debridement and inspection for injuries beyond just cut flesh. A tetanus shot might not be a bad idea, either. And if you're going to see a doc for the shot, you might as well have him/her do the rest, too. Second, the superglues I worked with in the hospital were meant for use on and in humans, not for sticking together inanimate objects. Trace toxins and irritating contaminants don't matter much to great aunt Sophie's broken teacup handle, but I sure wouldn't want that stuff inside me. Third, the glues have two main uses. One is making artificial joints stick to human bone, and the other is to hold together lacerated skin. The glues actually don't work well in sticking together human flesh, cut surface to cut surface. As far as I know (it has been a few years since I worked in an ER), you don't actually put the stuff into the cut, you put it OVER the cut, to hold the cut skin closed. In that sense, the glue is more like a super bandaid than anything else. Deep cuts would not be held together except at the surface with either. The deep cut layers would still need pulling together by traditional suturing. As an ex-ER pediatrician who sutured together many a cut on screaming kids who could not be sedated, please believe me that I wished many times that superglue was enough. All that being said, a well cleaned, shallow, clean edged cut can be held closed by Dermabond or something similar, including the stuff you can buy OTC. Kevin C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Pinto Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Superglue??? On wounds ????? Damn. Haven't any of you guys seen "American Pie 2" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Di Vita Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Vince, On wounds....not genitalia... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhino Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 sure, medical grade cyanoacrylate is used a lot these days. excellent for closing incisions.i had a patient who accidentally squirted a tube of superglue in her eyes! had to surgically remove all the glue and open her eyes back! Ouch!!! Cousin EC ... did she mistake the glue for eyedrops and just squirt without reading the label? If so, that is one of my fears because the bottles are so similar! I always, always, always read the label for applying or ingesting medications! KevinC ... my dad says they use glue to repair livers too, although it was after "his time." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcoliver Posted September 29, 2004 Author Share Posted September 29, 2004 Excellent responses, guys. I tried it in spite of the "hazards" some have pointed out. However, without the wifey approving of the operation, I had to do it alone. And it works, closed the wound shut as well as gluing my other fingers to my palm. I also realized, with the kind of wound I have, it will only stay closed as long as I don't try to use my thumb. In short, more trouble than it was worth to me. Back to traditional band aid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 I get scuffed-up alot so I've really grown to like the Liquid Band-aid I can buy at the grocery. It's really great for knuckles and places where regular Band-aids have trouble sticking. If you're a recreational nose picker, like Flexmoney, the liquid kind is a real life saver for your index finger. BTW, there are alot of very useful veterinary supplies that we outdoor types should keep handy. I started to pack them on hunting trips in case my horse got wounded. But, hunting being what it is, I usually came home wearing more vet supplies than my horse did. Now I pre-fer vet-wrap to an Ace Bandage any day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 And Vet-Wrap comes in cool colors too! Unlike Ace bandages which are just boring tan. Helpful hint: buy your vet-wrap at the livestock supply, not the pet store. You can get about 10x more for the same cost if it is for livestock than if it is for pets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Burwell Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Kevin C, You hit it. I too have sutured many a screaming kid and while the new dermabond is nice for simple repairs it doesn't bond the tissue together well. I still prefer sutures on my patients. Being as stubborn as a mule I refuse to go to the ER for any of my own mishaps, I have tried the Super glue trick many times (slow learner I guess ) and have never had good results. It needs reapplied 3-4 times a day depending on movement and hand washing. The risk of infection I am sure is greater, as it is hard to properly debride a wound that has not been "numbed up". And lastly it burns like CRAZY when you apply it. So everyone take it from me don't bother with the super glue, either butterfly and bandaid, go get it repaired, or just leave it alone. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 All this time I thought I was the only one with a roll of vetwrap in the medicine cabinet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimel Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 All this time I thought I was the only one with a roll of vetwrap in the medicine cabinet... Oh heck no. When I was about 6 or 7 I fell down some stairs and did a real fun dislocation on my thumb (trying to catch myself on the hand rail). Doc at the ER popped things back into place and then used something VERY similar to Vet-Wrap to stabilize things...except it was "flesh" colored. That was a lot of years ago. First time I saw Vet-Wrap I remembered the dislocated thumb and grabbed a couple rolls. I didn't even have a critter at the time but I remembered how well that stuff worked. Now we keep multiple rolls around the house and more of it gets used on the humanoid life forms than on dogs or cats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eye Cutter Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 sure, medical grade cyanoacrylate is used a lot these days. excellent for closing incisions.i had a patient who accidentally squirted a tube of superglue in her eyes! had to surgically remove all the glue and open her eyes back! Ouch!!! Cousin EC ... did she mistake the glue for eyedrops and just squirt without reading the label? If so, that is one of my fears because the bottles are so similar! I always, always, always read the label for applying or ingesting medications! KevinC ... my dad says they use glue to repair livers too, although it was after "his time." the poor girl pressed the tube, nothing came out. the tip was blocked with hardened left-over glue. a little more pressure and a spurt of mighty bond flew straight in her eye!!! double ouch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skywalker Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Kinda along the lines of looking down the bore of your gun to see why the the round didn't ignite... Safe gun handling should be taught to everybody, for the most disparate reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carinab Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 I have used super glue in certain situations - an emergency out in the field and once because I had no money to pay for medical services. I superglued my thumb for a repair just after moving to Texas. Sure, I had cobra insurance but only for the medical group back in California. When I went in the urgent care office with my flip top thumb (opening a can of dog food - the ones with a pull tab top), I asked how much it would be. When they told me about $400.00, I wished them a pleasant day. A friend of mine doctors her own horses because she doesn't have much money so I called her for advice. Here were the rules: Betadine wash; clean the wound, clean it again, clean it some more. Use superglue ONLY on the outside to hold the skin together. Keep the area clean, wrap or cover if necessary. It worked okay for my thumb but I messed up when I aligned the skin before gluing. It's a little uneven on one side and that side is still a bit numb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Sam, you still drag your knuckles when you walk? Eric, I think that vetwrap is the same stuff that works decent as grip tape? About.com has some info on urban legends and folklore associated with super glue: http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/business/a/superglue.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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