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Comment by Sulfolobus | Hacker News Reader

Could you not just use Superglue for a temporary fix before treatment?

Superglue does work. But if you watch the video in the article there is no way you could apply Superglue to a cut that deep and that long.

Couldn't you just use a piece of waterproof [well blood-proof] material lathered with superglue and slap it on; basically a superglue band-aid. That would contain the bleeding and be cheaper and easier to apply, presumably, than this solution. It would have the same problem of internal bleeding as well of course.

With the OP's solution how do you remove it to treat the injury?

It would contain the bleeding but it wouldn't stop it.

I understood that was what the gel in question did, contained the bleeding to prevent bleeding out before medical aid could be given. But, that it was not preventing the bleed from continuing internally.

As you may guess I have basically no medical training so I may well have misunderstood.

I don't know enough to say why that would or wouldn't work in some absolute sense. But if we're comparing instead of talking absolutes, my first question to narrow it down is: "Doesn't superglue have some gnarly stuff in it? Stuff that you don't want in your body if an alternative like this exists?"

That'll depend on the exact type of superglue, but there's a more basic problem in that the standard stuff uses a cyanoacrylate that often is an irritant. So they use a slightly different variety in medicine, first trade name Dermabond, which was used the last time I got a bad enough cut. It's really good stuff, but as noted elsewhere, not so applicable for catastrophic hemorrhage.

  | Using ordinary Super Glue on wounds
  | can cause side effects, but a safer 
  | alternative exists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/health/04real.html?_r=0

Is that for real ? Does Super glue on wounds is an existing alternative?

If you go to the pharmacy and buy a bottle of liquid bandage, it's just superglue with antiseptics mixed in.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Dermabond

That's amazing

In my experience with superglue-based liquid bandage, it works poorly on an actively bleeding wound, as the blood mixes with and breaks through the glue before it sets.

Superglue probably wouldn't dry as fast. It might be toxic, depending on the chemicals. It sounds like this forces the blood to clot, I don't know if the blood would clot fast behind a superglue barrier.

The next time you use superglue (cyanoacrylate) and want it to dry and harden instantly, go get some baking soda and gently sprinkle the soda over the superglue. It instantly hardens, albeit with a mottled texture.

I've done that before when I got superglue on my finger, and wasnt sure what was water and what was glue. Some baking soda, and it hardens for me to see and feel it. Also worked well on my RepRap, when I had my X-idler delaminate.

Having previously worked as a carpenter I have vast experience with moderate size cuts, and always had a bottle of brush-on superglue in my belt. If you rinse the cut and leave it a little damp when you apply the superglue it actually pulls the wound closed as it dries as well as killing any bacteria.

Common in bowling as well, for the cuts you'll inevitably get on your thumb. Most pro shops will sell liquid bandage, which is essentially just superglue as well.

I believe the liquid bandage also has an antiseptic in it as well to make sure you kill any pathogens.

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