Hooray for Super Glue

[WelderDan]

So I'm at work last night, and I'm un-jamming a piece of equipment. I catch my thumb on the frame and damned if I didn't peel back a big old flap of hide from the tip of my thumb. I'm talking a nice big chunk too. So I tape it up real quick, but I can't work with a big old wad of tape wrapped around my thumb, it just ain't happening.

So, after I'm sure the bleeding has stopped, I dig through my tool bag and find my trusty tube of Super Glue. I un-wrap my thumb and take measure of the damage. No need for stitches, so I pull back the flap of hide and squirt a big old gob in there. SON OF A BITCH does that shit burn! Luckily no one can here me cussing over all the running equipment. I let it set up for a couple minutes, and then glued a bit of paper over the top just to help keep it sealed up and I was good to go.

That shit is a must have in my book. If you do the kind of work that's tough on your hands, keep a tube of that shit handy.

 

[Stoner4Life]

I'll have to add that to my 1st aid kit, super glue go figure, maybe toss in some Windex as an antiseptic as well.......

 

[armedoldhippy]

i keep a tube of it around all the time. i have glued myself up like you did to avoid medical treatment on the job/piss test, repaired archery tackle in the middle of nowhere, & once glued a piece of inner tube under a corner of a jeep radiator so i could keep hunting. the inner tube was still on there 2 years later when i sold the jeep... useful stuff, super glue...

 

[aridbud]

The use of cyanoacrylate glues (Super Glue, Krazy Glue) in medicine was considered fairly early on. Eastman Kodak and Ethicon began studying whether the glues could be used to hold human tissue together for surgery. In 1964 Eastman submitted an application to use cyanoacrylate glues to seal wounds to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Soon afterward Dr. Coover's glue did find use in Vietnam--reportedly in 1966 cyanoacrylates were tested on-site by a specially trained surgical team, with impressive results. According to an interview with Dr. Coover by the Kingsport Times-News:

Coover said the compound demonstrated an excellent capacity to stop bleeding, and during the Vietnam War, he developed disposal cyanoacrylate sprays for use in the battle field.

"If somebody had a chest wound or open wound that was bleeding, the biggest problem they had was stopping the bleeding so they could get the patient back to the hospital. And the consequence was--many of them bled to death. So the medics used the spray, stopped the bleeding, and were able to get the wounded back to the base hospital. And many, many lives were saved," Coover said.

"This was very powerful. That's something I'm very proud of--the number of lives that were saved," he said.

Ironically, the Food & Drug Administration hadn't given approval for the medical use of the compound at that point. But the military used the substance, anyway (reference 1).

Although cyanoacrylate glues were useful on the battlefield, the FDA was reluctant to approve them for civilian use. In part, this was due to a tendency of the early compounds (made from "methyl-2-cyanoacrylate") to irritate the skin as the glue reacted with water and cured in the skin, releasing cyanoacetate and formaldehyde. A compound called "butyl-2-cyanoacrylate" was developed to reduce toxicity, but suffered from brittleness and cracking a few days after application. Finally an improved cyanoacrylate glue was developed for medical applications called "2-octyl-cyanoacrylate." This compound causes less skin irritation and has improved flexibility and strength--at least three times the strength of the butyl-based compound (reference 2). As a result, in 1998 the FDA approved 2-octyl cyanoacrylate for use in closing wounds and surgical incisions, and in 2001 approved it for use as a "barrier against common bacterial microbes including certain staphylococci, pseudomonads, and Escherichia coli" (reference 2). This latest incarnation was marketed under the name Traumaseal as well as the more popular Dermabond.

http://www.straightdope.com

 

[stoned-trout]

superglue has been the demise of many criminals......