Based on my limited first aid training (Wilderness First Responder), I would not use this. Apply a dressing with pressure bandage, then go see someone who knows what they’re doing. @lumbercartel is right–if you use this with no prior training, you’re likely to create new problems for yourself.
Tools like this play right into people’s Dunning Kruger half-assery. Why not buy some airways and a chest decompression needle, as well? How hard could it be?
Staples!
Staples makes ya’ gay!
I’ve seen these used a couple times, to great effect.
Of course, those times were at kink events, but still, to great effect.
How about superglue? Is that an option?
When you get to definitive care, how do they get the gunk out of the wound?
Its a good question but when I get glue on my fingers it seems to peel off eventually.
How does that work internally?
Off-the-shelf superglue is actually derived from an experimental replacement for dissolving sutures. So far so good. However, if you don’t get the wound edges aligned perfectly, you’re going to have some nasty scarring. Even if you do, you have a barrier to (attempted) restoration of blood and lymphatic circulation and besides that you may also block nervous restoration.
And you still have foreign matter in the wound in addition to the glue. Please see above with regard to gangrene, abscesses, etc.
I’ve seen a lot of nasty wounds in the past twenty-plus years. All but two have been “ship them to ER where they can be properly cleaned and sutured and no, don’t put it off.”
One of those was a kid whose near relative (parent, uncle, whatever) was an MD and kiddo tried to tell me that said family member would take care of it. I needed to get that clear (minor) so we called said family member and although the kid was using the handset I could hear said family pro loudly tell said kid that I was being a lot more polite than they would have now GET YOUR ASS TO ER LIKE YOU WERE TOLD. NOW!
One exception was a kid with a party member who was an ER MD, who very politely asked for permission to use our station to do the job right there and maybe we could spot some sterile supplies. No prob, never argue with the pros and besides you learn a lot. We provide gloves etc. and doc pulls out a syringe, we provide a basin and sterile saline, doc does a beautiful irrigation of the wound plus a bit of topical sterilant (sulfa? It’s been a while) and then pulls out his field stapler and it all goes together, bandage to protect the wound for a while, bye thanks all around.
If you’re not ready to do that why do you think you know better than someone who does it for a living day in and day out?
I have seen it done, but I have never done it myself for wounds large enough to otherwise require staples/stitches. Surgical glue wasn’t a common thing when I got my training. I’d be somewhat leery, I’m not sure how it’d get cleaned up if my meatball fix had problems that needed further treatment. But for small cuts, particularly on the hands, sure, though I generally just go with a band-aid or tape.
I have some of that for mine too. Shockingly cheap to buy.
Most first aid kits you buy are not that great. I had to add stuff to mine to feel good about it, but I used to be a nurse. I might be pickier.
Don’t half ass the removal. It hurts less. I still have a staple extractor from a disposable kit from ages ago when I was nurse. Comes in handy every once in a while when my uninsured friends need staples removed. Also, don’t just pull and yank, gently bend the staple and fish it out of the holes. Staple removal doesn’t have to be painful.
Jeeeeeeeeze! We really DO live in a dystopian nightmare / grotesque political satire… don’t we.
Does it come in red?
i had never seen the Australia remix before.
they said chicks dig scars
not Chucks!
edit formatting
It has worked for me.
I grew up on a farm where we had dairy goats. I learned to suture cuts to their udders (goats just love to jump fences, even when heavy with milk. Ouch!). But I am not coordinated enough to sew myself up. Super glue is always on my boat, in my tackle box, tool box, first aid boxes. I have superglued some nasty cuts that should have been stitched. As others have rightly pointed out, cleanliness is of utmost importance and proper irrigation is a must.
So far, no infections, even when slicing my hand while fileting mahi. Pressure, lots of clean water, peroxide, pressure and superglue. Wrap in sterile bandage and get back to fishing!
I was just thinking
“Is this a pervertable?”
Butterfly bandages are hard to beat for medium grade wounds that might otherwise need stitches. They can close the cut with less focused force providing better healing and much less scarring than stitches. I always have some around.
Re. superglue - from what I’ve heard the medical grade surgical glues and the regular adhesive cyanoacrylates are chemically different with a non-zero toxicity risk in the latter - as always please be careful with off label uses folks.
I had an abdominal surgery seven years ago that was closed with staples. The scar from planned surgeries shouldn’t look like a failed harakiri attempt. But I have a scar as wide as my thumb and little dots in rows down the sides from the staples.
I had another abdominal surgery three years ago. They glued it closed and put steri-strips on it. There’s a thin white line where that one was.
Not a great movie, but holy crap did that scene stick with me.
Liquid sutures or superglue are much more user friendly. You don’t have to psych yourself up nearly so much to glue yourself back together.
