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Superglue for emergency wound care

I've carried superglue in my packs for years for both first-aid and repair purposes but never had a need for it (first-aid wise) until this weekend.

Sliced my right index finger near the tip when I looked away (i.e. not paying full attention) from what I was cutting. A real bleeder ensued.
Being 4 miles from my truck I attempted a bandage with some gauze and duct tape but I bled through that in short order.

Decided to try the super glue as temporary stitches trick. Worked really well. Saved my hike!
 
I've always used super-glue in my shop for sealing cuts.
Most people just give you a strange stare when you tell 'em.
But it works really well & w/ no side effects what I've noticed. I don't know if the chemicals are bad for you, but like in your case it is certainly worse to bleed profusely in the middle of nowhere..
Nice to hear that it helped you out!
 
Used to do a lot of rock climbing in my younger days and that was in everyones first aid kit. The[FONT=arial, sans-serif]mountaineers in the club swore by it, that and ibuprofen. [/FONT]
 
Do you guys fill the cut with it and squeeze it together, or just glue the edges of the skin together and leave the cut unsealed under the skin?

As far as toxicity goes, I think it has cyanide compounds in it. It's safe enough that they sell it in tubes, but I probably wouldn't eat it on toast. Unless the only other option was Vegemite.
 
Years ago a girlfriend of mine was trimming whiskers on her horse and the critter was cut accidentally.

She called the vet and he told her to apply some super-glue asap.

We both looked at each other like is this guy crazy!

He wasn't, it worked.
 
The cyanide is released into the air during curing.
You could eat it (cured) on toast and it would not hurt you... once cured it's not going to be digestable... it'll just pass through like any other cured polymer.

I've used it hundreds of times to seal small cuts that weren't quite bad enough for a trip to Kaiser, but would not stop bleeding with just pressure.
 
I'm a pro musician and use superglue all the time for temporary patching up of cuts on fingers. It's gotten me through gigs I would otherwise be able to play.

Youmcan also rebuild a pretty good fingernail out of layers of tea bag material and superglue....
 
I've used super glue. I didn't fill the wound, I pinch it together and glued over the surface, did a few coats and had to apply it a few hrs later to make sure it didn't open up again. The cut was on my palm so it was hard to make sure it stayed closed.
 
Only in an emergency. It's not a sterile, medical-grade product. They do make tissue glue that doctors (and veterinarians) use. The hardware-variety could have toxic chemicals and impurities that could interfere with healing or introduce infection.
 
There are differences. I think the medical grade is weaker on top of knownly (supposed to be) sterile. I has to use it twice over two days to close up some pretty good cuts I put on two fingers being stupid. I fletch my own arrows and for others. No matter how hard I try I always end up with the glue on my fingers. It's attracted to me, just like dirt, grease, paint and oil. I notice the fletching glue seems to hold longer, stay on longer is harder then the medical grade that I have. With either versions I have never had a reaction with my skin. I am not telling anyone else what to do or use but I would not hesitate to use either version.

Also to prolong the shelf life of super glue keep it in the fridge. It looses it bonding strength over time. Not a fun fact to find after fletching a dozen or more arrows with some that has lost its bonding strength. The Goldtip rep taught me that trick and I have never been let down with any companies product after storing it in fridge.
 
I also use it all the time in my shop. Some times I will grind through the top layer of skin and will start to ooze a little.... super glue a layer of paper towel down and I'm ready to go!

Don't put it down into the cut. Push the cut together and glue the skin. You don't want super glue inside your body... it won't absorb!

Tom
 
When I used to work in a warehouse fulltime I always kept a tube handy, works great on box cutter slices.


Jay
 
I too carry it in my first aid kit when backpacking. I've yet to need it on the trail but I have used it at home in cuts. I second the post on how to use it, push the wound together and glue accross it to hold the skin together. Works great!
 
The medical grade stuff is called DermaBond. It's a cyanoacrylate, and is harmless in small/irregular doses, as best as I understand. It's used in surgery to close up cosmetic incisions, to avoid the "mounding" you get with a stack of stitches.

Superglue is almost the exact same stuff.
 
A couple years ago I was reaching into a drain to unplug it and did not know there was a cutter blade lodged in middle. I initally thought I had jammed something under my nail only find that the blade had sliced my nail almost in half. The only thing I think to do was super glue the nail together. I had to do it every few days for several weeks , but it worked until the nail grew out. You never know how long it takes for a nail to grow out until it is really injured.
 
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