Dermabond. Purple liquid stitches, like a Pritt Stick for skin? Two coats and the wound is stuck together, no nasty needles. Yay! Watch the demo!
After your wound has been cleaned, your doctor will apply DERMABOND adhesive in thin layers (a minimum of three) with a light brushing stroke, while holding the edges of the wound together. As DERMABOND adhesive is applied, it forms a strong, flexible bond in just 45-60 seconds, and reaches full strength in approximately 2½ minutes. As your wound heals, DERMABOND adhesive wears off the skin, with complete skin healing usually occurring in 5-10 days.
NOT to be confused with sexual lubricant.
It looks like you can use the same tip for anyone. How intresting…
Yuck, really? I saw a small tip, but there must be some way to sterilize the thing. They’re doctors aren’t they? :-)
$75 for a tube of superglue?!?!
It never fails to amaze me how doctors can overcharge for anything.
I’m an ER doc–those things are pretty cool. The pen is a ‘use once’ device–you throw it away and use a new one for each patient. The glue is the purple viscous material in the vials to the left. It actually comes in those little vials, which you break open (also use-once). The company sells the pens for extra, but my ED doesn’t use them.
Dermabond isn’t for every wound–if there’s any considerable amount of tension on the skin, you really need to use stitches instead, and it burns like fire if you get it inside the wound instead of just painting over the edges. But, for the right wound, it works fast!
I’m not sure where you got $75 from…I think our ED pays about $15-20 per tube or so? It might be more, I haven’t looked at the pricing in ages. Of course, we charge for applying it. Keep in mind that the rest of the charge for closing your wound has to do with cleaning it, knowing how to close it/with what, and also a follow-up visit. You get the same charge for wound length whether it was closed with dermabond (yes, superglue) or stitches.
wow, thanks for clearing a lot of things up rick! You sure gave a lot of insight of this mystical product.
Another pen is mightier than sword story…