KRW Wrote:Sorry about steeling your thunder Thor, my enthusiasm got the better of me!
Question; what was the idiotic reason it was banned? The stuff works great! I've used it in the field, and you said it was used in the field in Vietnam. I'm just curious. If the cut can be held together, this will bind it till it heals. Plus it takes the pain away, (I imagine because the air can't get to it) and it holds so well, a person can go back to work in minutes. And after a few days, it comes off on it's own. I've slit my palm open more than once, used bandaids and superglue, I recommend superglue over bandaids.
I gather it's just banned in the U.S.. Seems that the FDA did an experiment; they put a small ball of hardened super glue under the skin of lab rats and there was some kind of reaction to it. Funny thing; they put a small ball of pure glass under the skin of the control rats and they developed the same problem. I think it was some kind of scar tissue, but that didn't bother the FDA, they banned it anyway.
In Vietnam, Cyanoacrylate -- the active substance in superglue -- was used in aerosol form. It was sprayed on burns, severe open wounds, blown off limbs,etc., and it immediately stopped bleeding, stopped fluid loss in burns, and the protective shield prevented infection.
I remember this from an article in REASON Magazine from the late '70's. I wonder if it might be in their archives on the web. I still have the magazine . . . somewhere.
I know dentists in Canada use it almost exclusively . . . works much better than stitching up gums after oral surgery.
Ken V.