Reply: Superglue for Small Wounds

Hi Ferfal, really enjoy your blog and your book as well; currently my dad has my copy. I'm a registered nurse working in an OR up here in America, so I deal with wound closures every day. I would suggest to you and your readers that you not glue wounds any deeper than 1/4", rather than the 3/4" recommended in the post (maybe a typo?). There's just too much risk for infection or for uncontrolled bleeding. Your circumstances will dictate, but generally the shallower and cleaner the wound the more appropriate for gluing.

Your point about leaving an opening for drainage is spot on. As you said, if you start to see any significant drainage, warmth, discoloration, or discolored streaks from the wound, it's past time for a professional. Supergluing things yourself is a good option if you're desperate, but if you have access to formal medical care that's of course your best option for treating whatever injury.

Keep up the great work, and take care,

Graham

Hi Graham. Thanks for the correction. I was actually thinking of some of the head cuts ERs around here fix with superglue. You're right, that's around 1/4 inch, not half an inch. Sorry for that, we use metric around here. :-)
The lip that I saw pictures of glued together though, that was a serious wound and the doctor still used superglue. Guess the lesson is that while it can be done, when used so extensively you need a doc. When doing it yourself just stick to smaller wounds.

Mr Aguirre

 

About 15 years ago I had inner ear surgery. 

The way they get to the inner ear is to cut the outside of the ear almost all of the way off and then tape it to

your nose to get it out of the way....then drill (or moto-tool) a hole in your skull above the ear canal to reach the inner ear.

After doing the repair, they used medical super glue to glue my ear back on.  There was  a large compression dressing over the ear that I had to leave on for 24 hours...and had to be carefull for several

more days, but it healed perfectly.

For a few months little pieces of the cyanacrolate would work their way out of the incision area if I scratched or washed it.  No pain, very little swelling---overall excellent result--and (unfortunately) my ears are no small piece of flesh and cartilage.  Super glue is good stuff.

 

Mark    Dayton, Oh

Thanks Mark for your email. Seems that its used a lot for soft tissues.
This is the PDF document I referred to beofre: Lip suture with isobutyl cianoacrylate (Graphic Warning!:shows actual wounds)
Click on it, its worth reading  and it  shows how isobutyl cianoacrylate is actually used. Notice Dr. Blanco actually puts the glue INSIDE the wound, THEN presses the sides together. Of course the wound shouldn't be bleeding much so as to achieve this correctly. Again, for this type of larger wound, go to the doctor. Its still interesting to understand how this works.
Take care,


 FerFAL