Thread: Superglue

Does it hurt/sting a lot when applied? Is it sterile?

New Skin stings a little if applied directly to an open wound, but only for a few minutes. It seals up like a bandage when it dries. It's good stuff. My experience with super glue is that it stings like hell. I don't know about sterile, but New Skin is antiseptic.

Some notes from experience:

Superglue stings because it's kept dehydrated in methyl alcohol. Kids don't like anything that stings. And some adults.

The medical grade stuff is kept dehydrated in acetone which stings less. Probably the same for New Skin, I'll have to read a bottle the next time at the pharmacy, but it should be on the label.

Cyanoacrylate activates when exposed to water. Blood certainly, even air humidity will do the trick. Blowing on it will accelerate the cure. Really avoid the temptation to use that chemical accelerant on this stuff. Heat is the result. Don't ask me how I know this.

It works best by itself on "dry" wounds. If you have a deep one that keeps leaking plasma, eventually the thiosulfates in the serum will break down the cyanide radical and the glue will not hold very well any longer. In that case, some steristrips glued to the skin on either side work even better than stitches.

Because of thiosulfates, IT IS NOT A POISON, as some internet mythmasters would have you believe.

It's been used on wounds since 1968 when aircrews in Vietnam found that the glue used to stick optical gun sights on formerly strategic nuke sleds now being used for close support worked really well to seal up cuts. It didn't really get into modern medicine until about 10 years ago.

Great info! Thanks Mike.