Super Glue for Cuts?

Josh K said:
Like I said, the gorilla formula is a bit more flexible, and I've had no problems on my hands with it. :)
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Josh,
What method do you use with the gorilla glue? IICRC gorilla glue takes a while to set up and does better if clamped.
 
Sharp Eye said:
Josh,
What method do you use with the gorilla glue? IICRC gorilla glue takes a while to set up and does better if clamped.
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Repeating again.....

I use the Gorilla brand SUPER GLUE. Not the foam everywhere clamp for 24hrs stuff.

The only difference I've noticed is that it takes about an extra five seconds to set, and it's a bit more flexible.

I'd love to use Dermabond or whatnot. The problem is getting it at a reasonable cost.

FWIW, Gorilla Glue products are Made in USA. :)
 
I've never used superglue on a big cut (yet, now that I've jinxed myself :rolleyes:) but have used it to keep pesky flaps of skin on smaller cuts from opening up again and again.
 
Dollar General has the big, off yellow colored clamps that I use for gluing stuff with Gorilla Glue. If you're not used to it, ever see McQueen in "The BLOB?" :D

You could get the clamps at Dollar General to put in a PSK though. ( J/K ) :D
 
Don Rearic said:
Dollar General has the big, off yellow colored clamps that I use for gluing stuff with Gorilla Glue. If you're not used to it, ever see McQueen in "The BLOB?" :D

You could get the clamps at Dollar General to put in a PSK though. ( J/K ) :D
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Maybe if I cut my arm off I'd break out the Gorilla Glue (non-super) and clamp it back on. It's only a flesh wound right? :D
 
super glue is used in the hopitals and clinics every day, it is just called derma bond and costs 400 times more. I have used it on my hands, arms and a scalp wound. It's a bugger getting the residue out of your hair, but sure beat 2 hours in the wating room and 3 staples to the scalp.
 
Turner said:
super glue is used in the hopitals and clinics every day, it is just called derma bond and costs 400 times more. I have used it on my hands, arms and a scalp wound. It's a bugger getting the residue out of your hair, but sure beat 2 hours in the wating room and 3 staples to the scalp.
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Dermabond actually has longer poly chains then regular super glue. This makes the bond more flexible, and for some reason, antibacterial. Plus it's sterile and rated for internal use.

As mentioned before, if a bath of super glue got contaminated with some nasty stuff, it probably would still get past the QC because they don't expect people to drink the stuff.
 
Steri strips suck in the wilderness.

In the ER or at home where you can make everything nice, clean and dry they work, but in the woods where everything is full of water, sweat, blood and snot, they suck.

I'm cleaning it best I can and throwing some string in or glue on and worrying about nerve bundles and abcesses when stuff stops working and infection starts to flow.

Really, obviously if you can get proper medical attention, go get it, but when you are in the backwoods or are confident you have not severed your achillies tendon, clean it, seal it and let your body do the rest of the job.
 
However, closing a possibly life threatening wound with the possibility of later infection, is better then bleeding to death.
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If you have a life threatening hemorrhage, then super glue is of no help whatsoever. An your average untrained person doesn't have a clue about how to assess "life threatening conditions" anyway.

Superglue is very likely to make a non-lifethreatening superficial wound into a deadly systemic infection.

If you can't spell microbiology, you have no business closing wounds. Just cover the wound and change the dressings often. If you have to and you are short on dressings or improvised dressings, rotate them cleaning them as best you can (soap if you have it) and boiling them.

Antibiotics if you have them for anything except a very superficial nicks. Docs do it. I'll bet they know what they are doing.

Take an EMT course at your closest volunteer fire dept. It will be time better spent than sewing up lemons.

Sugar? Can't imagine a better thing to promote bacterial growth.
 
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I completely disagree.

If you have the option of a hospital, by all means take it, but applying direct pressure and hoping for the best is BS while hiking.

So far, nobody has spoken up and said "I got a bad infection from superglue"

It is a useful tool. Not a medical accepted means of addressing a wound, but neither is the bandana you use to wipe off blood from thorns.

You should use the best medical items available, but lack of those items should not prohibit you improvising.

Use what ya got!
 
nemoaz said:
If you have a life threatening hemorrhage, then super glue is of no help whatsoever. An your average untrained person doesn't have a clue about how to assess "life threatening conditions" anyway.

Superglue is very likely to make a non-lifethreatening superficial wound into a deadly systemic infection.

If you can't spell microbiology, you have no business closing wounds. Just cover the wound and change the dressings often. If you have to and you are short on dressings or improvised dressings, rotate them cleaning them as best you can (soap if you have it) and boiling them.

Antibiotics if you have them for anything except a very superficial nicks. Docs do it. I'll bet they know what they are doing.

Take an EMT course at your closest volunteer fire dept. It will be time better spent than sewing up lemons.

Sugar? Can't imagine a better thing to promote bacterial growth.
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Neosporin? We're not stupid. ;)

Okay, maybe "life threatening" was a little harsh. Maybe we'll say 4" gash. 1" deep on your forearm.

I don't think "cover and go on" is the best option here. We all have the time to wait around to boil rags that have been god knows where to make sure we're not going to get a rampant staph infection. ;)

I'd take super glue from an airtight bottle over your pocket hanky any day.
 
Lots of threads on this in the past. SuperGlue contains ingredients that damage tissue IIRC. Dermabond does not. Dermabond is more expensive though.
 
PrimitiveMan said:
Steri strips suck in the wilderness.

In the ER or at home where you can make everything nice, clean and dry they work, but in the woods where everything is full of water, sweat, blood and snot, they suck.
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I guess my Wife's blood is somehow different from other blood you have experienced or it's been so long since you used 3M Steri-Strips, or perhaps you used the Sam's Club Welfare Steri-Strips...they stuck just fine last Sunday. :D

I think when people don't like something, they just make up whatever they can to shoot it down. Just toss as much shit as you can and sooner or later, something will stick.

You said you have sutured yourself in the past, more than once. I don't remember how many times or if you even said how many times. Why in the hell would you do something minorly invasive like repeatedly pushing a suture needle through your meat in an environment full of "water, sweat, blood and snot?"

If you are in such a state or an environment where you can't get a 3M Steri-Strip to stick, I'm thinking you shouldn't be suturing it, of all damned things.

Besides, you didn't find anything wrong with it over in the other thread, now in this one you do. Puzzling! Forum behavior generally is...

If you want to put Krazy Glue on a wound, by all means, do it. Likewise, if you want to do something even more stupid, wrap it up with electrical or duct tape, I'm sure you can get at least a dozen people to say you won't get an infection from that, either. I saw a guy do it at Bladeshow back in 1999 and you should have seen that cut about four hours later.

The reason I posted the other thread and posted in this one was so people would think. Apparently some are because they are going out and researching about Dermabond and they are starting to have lights come on over their head instead of simply going along with the herd like another cow.

BTW: (P.M.) Correction, you were not in the other thread. LONG DAY! :D
 
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Josh K said:
What ingredients?
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The alcohol, I think. Here's are a couple of old posts from similar threads:

Bodyhammer said:
The main ingredients in superglue are alcohol and cyanoacrylate (C5H5NO2). Cyanoacrylate is an acrylic resin that begins polymerizing almost instantly on contact with the hydroxyl ions found in water (anything you want to glue will probably have at least trace amounts of water, thus superglue's versatility.)

The concerns about damage to tissue from the use of superglue come not from the cyanoacrylate, but from the alcohol used for the chemical reaction. Regular superglue uses methanol (CH3OH), which is inexpensive to produce, but it creates a lot of heat in the reaction (and can cause burns if used on a large enough area) and also happens to be toxic. (This is the same stuff they add to ethanol to "denature" it, primarily to avoid the taxes on alcohol by making it undrinkable.)

Medical superglues, on the other hand, use butyl, isobutyl or octyl esters rather than methyl alcohol. The esters are much safer, inhibit bacterial growth, are painless to apply, produce a lot less heat, and the body is able to break them down easily.
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Flotsam said:
the medical version (marketed under the name Dermabond) is a slightly different form of cyanoacrylate - it works fairly well for clean, relatively small, cuts. It is only for approximating the skin - the wound is held closed, and then thin layers of the Dermabond are applied over the wound edges while they are in contact. You still need to keep it clean & dry. It is not supposed to be introduced into the wound. Cuts in the scalp/hairline are better off treated w/ sutures or staples, less the oil from the hair weaken the bond. If you get a nice big cut that is deep, you will need sutures anyway to close the deeper layers. Plain old super glue breaks down into toxic byproducts - the main reason Dermabond was created.
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And here's my take from a while back:

myself said:
What's all this garbage about cauterizing and superglue? Here's all you need to know:

Step One: Before doing anything else, wipe the blood off your knife. The most important thing here is that your expensive blade not rust. If no arterial spurts emanate from the wound, take the time to go find your Tuff-Cloth and wipe the blade down.

Step Two: Now that your knife is in good shape, scream "Oh Sh**!" at the top of your lungs. This strategy will attract attention and possibly alert a passerby with actual medical knowledge.

Step Three: If no one comes to your aid, bleed like a man. No sniveling. No calling your moma. Remember the old folkwisdom: If the wound bleeds well, there's less chance of infection. Of course, these are the same "folks" who used leeches and swamp potions, so take this advice for what it's worth.

Step Four: Remove the dusty, snot-encrusted handkerchief from your back pocket and tie it onto the wound. If the cut is in a strange place, find some duct tape (aka "100 mph tape") and tape down the hanky.

Step Five: Remember, no sniveling.

Step Six: Stumble to the nearest bar, and have three shots of tequila in quick succession. With so little blood left in your body, this should be enough to put you out like a light.

Step Seven: Wake up in alley behind bar, realize your wallet is gone, and pray that you haven't been violated.

Step Eight: Check your wound. It should have a nice crusty scab enmeshed in the hankerchief. Rip the hanky from the wound in a quick motion so as to avoid prolonging the pain. Go back to step two.
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Guyon said:
The alcohol, I think. Here's are a couple of old posts from similar threads:
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That would make sense. I guess I never thought about that.

I checked around online, and something like 1 fl. oz. of Dermabond was going for something like $50. :mad:
 
It's the price of having the Medical Mafia. :D

You don't need a 1 Oz. bottle, single-use is whatever I put in the other thread "WICK."
 
It actually depends on the type of super glue and the ingredients used, for minor cuts and abrasions and even medium to large cuts Cyanoacrylate is the active ingredient to look for. have used this a lot in myself and my patients ( am a vet) and have not had any problems with it.
checked the Gorilla super glue and the active ingredient is
*Polymeric MDI is a mixture of 4,4’-Diphenylmethane-diisocyanate, isomers and homologues.
so i don't know how safe it is for human use. you can check out the safety info here:

http://www.gorillaglue.com/Portals/0/pdfs/msds/MSDS%20Stronger%20Faster%20English.pdf
 
Josh K said:
I've been experimenting with using Super Glue (specifically, Gorilla Super Glue) for random cuts and scrapes recently. It's worked out pretty well so far. The one "stitch worthy" cut I had has healed with almost no pain, and no scar. (I laid the top of my thumb open).

I know there have been stories about others doing this. I'm curious to know how many people actually do?
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Once my head got cut opened probaly 2 in of so. So you know it works ok.
 
I feel that for the layperson, the "good ol wash the wound, dry, dressing and medical tape it closed" is the way to go. Sutures are GREAT, but best left for certain circumstances and persons trained to put them in. For the general public, its not a big deal to clean and dress a wound daily if in the woods etc.
 
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