Hmmm, that's a nasty cut you've got there, son. I'd better glue that shut for you.
Bizarre as it may sound, doctors in the near future will be using adhesives to heal the cuts that are now treated with stitches.
Clinical Assistant Medical School Prof. James Quinn has announced the development of a new skin adhesive that may replace stitches as the standard treatment for moderate lacerations. Trips to the emergency room may never be the same.
"It's basically like a flexible plastic that holds the wound together," Quinn said. He said the glue was from "the same family as crazy glue or super glue," and is much like the hundreds of other adhesives already on the market.
Application of the glue is much easier than suturing and takes only one-third of the time. Also, unlike stitches, no removal of the glue is necessary. Human skin is shed naturally every seven to 10 days; the glue comes off with the skin beneath.
The only side effect appears to be a mild burning sensation.
"It gives off a little heat," said Quinn, but noted that the reaction didn't happen to everyone. "Half the people in the study said they had no sense of discomfort at all."
A field study of the glue was performed in Canada on patients who had cuts of the appropriate nature. Of those who participated in the experiment, half received the glue treatment.
Overall, the glue was highly successful. It aided healing as quickly as stitches and left a scar of approximately the same magnitude.
Dr. Peter Johns of the Ottawa General Hospital was one of the emergency-room doctors who participated in the study.
"For those lacerations that came together very nicely and were not that large, it was very painless," Johns said. With that sort of neat laceration where no cleaning of the wound is necessary, doctors can forgo anesthetic as well as sutures. Needles can be entirely avoided, Johns said.
When doctors apply the glue, they hold the cut together with their fingers while painting the glue on top with a special applicator. The glue is originally purplish in color, but dries transparent.
"The key thing about using the tissue adhesive is that it's applied to the skin," said Johns. "You don't want to get any between the edges."
Johns said most doctors assume that the glue is applied like normal household glue - that the laceration is squeezed shut with the glue inside. Quinn and Johns both warned that if this is done, the glue will not only fail to seal the wound but also will become an obstacle that the body will try to heal around.
Quinn's version will be marketed under the name Dermabond, and will appear in emergency rooms everywhere as soon as it receives final FDA approval.