My lips are sealed

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Chasper

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They aren't totally sealed, but there are a couple pin head size spots of CA on my inner upper lip and they seem to be hanging on through tooth brushing, breakfast and a whole lot of nibbling and picking away at them. This stuff is tough.

I was replacing the tip on the CA bottle with a previously used tip and I assumed the old tip was all dried out. After poking at it with a pin to clean it out I put my lips on the tip to blow out any dried up chips that were there. Not all of the CA was dry and it wasn't the smartest thing to do.

Several years ago when my son was about 2-3 years old he managed to get a nasty little gash next to his eye, just below the eyebrow on the edge of the eye socket. It wasn't the first, worse, or last time he managed to get himself a little banged up. I took him to his regular peditrician thinking he might need a few stitches.

The doctor had a better idea, she had a just received some samples of surgical glue (I understand it is pretty much the same thing as thick CA) from a drug rep and she was anxious to give it a try. Two or three more doctors from the clinic came into the room along with 7-8 other medical personnel including a couple EMTs, they all wanted to see how this stuff would work.

She got the gash glued together, she also got the edge of his eyelid glued shut. When they realized she had glued his eye shut all the extra people in the room took off like a fire alarm had gone off, the EMTs jumped in their truck and drove away. Nobody wanted to be around to take the blame. He was pretty sorry looking for 4-5 days with one eye about 2/3 glued shut. Finally it wore off, no harm done, and the cut healed up nicely with no scar.
 
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Sounds like the doctor was careless. Glad there was not permanent damage. Actually, CA was originally developed as a surgical glue for use internally. It may still be used that way. There is a product on the market for closing external wounds that is, essentially, clean CA. However, my son, an emergency room physician, strongly discourages it's use. He says that most wounds can be controlled with compression until medical help is available. Then the wound can be cleaned and stitched, if necessary. He says the danger in gluing a wound closed is that you may seal in bacteria and then there is a high probability of serious infection that cannot be controlled without reopening and medical intervention. As you learned, even glue is a tool that needs to be handled with respect.
 
Apparently, as I learned in my college days, the main advantage of CA glue in the hospital is that it can be applied without the need for stitches or local anasthetics... we had to take a friend to the hospital to close up a gash in his head, and they wouldn't stitch him up because he had had a few drinks - the glue worked like a charm, however, and I think this is its main use in the ER...
 
Originally posted by maxwell_smart007
<br />Apparently, as I learned in my college days, the main advantage of CA glue in the hospital is that it can be applied without the need for stitches or local anasthetics... we had to take a friend to the hospital to close up a gash in his head, and they wouldn't stitch him up because he had had a few drinks - the glue worked like a charm, however, and I think this is its main use in the ER...
Click to expand...

That may be the main use today. But, an article, in a medical publication, I once read said that it originally was used for securing internal organs in place. Whether or not that proved successful in the long run, I don't know.
 
I'm an ER nurse of 14 yrs. We do use Dermabond on wounds that aren't in a joint or would open up with manipulation of an extremity. We use it mainly on facial and forehead lacerations. These wounds have to be cleaned the same as if they were being sutured.

Myself I've used my shop CA on my minor wounds. This is after tolerating a good washing with soap and water.
 
I also forgot, if it glues your eyelids shut, rub neosporin ointment, or generic neosp. oint. on the glued eyelid. It'll take some time but it'll come loose and won't be harmful to the eyes. Just don't use the stuff that has lidocaine("Neosporin Plus") in it.
 
A good friend of mine was a medic in Vietnam, and they used CA extensively in the field hospitals during surgery. My understanding, like Frank stated, is that CA was initially developed for use in the medical field.
 
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