Glue for cuts,does it give a good result? (poor injured dd)

[hellymelly]

My dd got whacked in the face today by a zipwire swingy thing.(she is 4) She already has a scar through one brow where DH tripped and fell when she was in the sling with him,and she feel onto glass. . Where the log seat bit of the zipwire caught her on her cheekbone there is a small but deep cut (it was pouring blood even though it isn't very big).The nurse at local hosp has glued it-will she have a scar there? I am so upset that she might have another mark on her lovely little face.

That's fell,not feel..sorry.

My 3yo DD has been glued up twice . It heals beautifully, can barely see the scar (one of them is still too new to tell). Hope you're OK, such a shock when they hurt themselves.

My beautiful DD now 7, is intent on destroying her face before she is a teenager.

Her latest incident was to fall whilst standing still on to a curve edged coffee table and crack open her forehead in 7cm long very deep wound - I was shocked at level of injury and I'm a vet!
The lovely nurses at our minor injuries spent a couple of hours stemming the pouring blood, once they had achieved this they steri-stripped and glued this gaping hole closed. Now 10 months later you can barely see the scar. I'm sure in another years time it won't be visible.

Whatever way you close a wound there will be some kind of scar that will fade with time. Glue, sterristrips, stitches makes no difference which one is used. The most important thing is bringing the edges together really well. Wound glue is great stuff.

My DS who is 4 had to have glue on his forehead when he tripped and cut it open at pre-school. In fact the first time they glued it, it re-opened so I had to take him back to A&E to get it done a second time. About 6 months on and you can barely see the scar at all.

My DD fell off a chair and split her cheek open on the floor, she had it glued together and even though it is in a really visible place it is hard to see now a year on. The MOST important thing is that when the glue has gone make sure you put sunblock on it every day for at least 6 months, even if it is not sunny as the skin is new and the sun will damage it and that is what generally causes a worse scar. I had not been told this before (older 2 DSs always getting glued back together) but DD did her whilst in a very hot sunny part of the USA and they gave us an advice sheet on how to prevent scaring and it said sunblock, even when not sunny is above anything else the most important. Other helpful things were a number of creams etc that you cannot buy in the Uk as they haven't been licenced for treatment on humans here

thats all so helpful,thankyou.Actually cried at the posts. I have been ridiculously upset about it today,and although I hadn't said anything to her,dd said to me "I don't like this (pointing to wound) I'm not beautiful any more am I?" so I realised I needed to look rather less worried about it in front of her. Mainly its because its in a very noticable place (centrally below her eye,at the socket edge)and also because she has a scar already. The scar she has was very mismanaged,in that the plastic surgeon wanted to give her a GA and suture it,so we had to starve her overnight etc, but then anaesthetists weren't happy about doing it,so they steri-stripped it. But as it was a day after the cut was made and it had started to knit,the strips did nothing,after a week it was still an open wound which was shocking and horrible,and then they said she really did need a GA, so starved her overnight for the second time (a six month old BF baby,so hideous) and then a second anaesthetist team said they didn't advise it at all.So the cut was left to heal and it is quite fat,although her eyebrow does cover some of it.
I am also slightly worried that the nurse may not have managed to get the edges together very cleanly,the wound was depressed on one side,and she didn't seem as though she had quite pushed it together enough,but we can't tell now with the glue on.
Last time we spoke to a dermatologist who told me that sunblock was important,so thanks for the reminder,I will do that. WhenIgetto3,what were the creams? Could you buy them at a chemists ? (have rellies in the US).

Dd2 cut her chin open and it was glued and steristripped back together.

Her cut is going to leave a noticeable scar, as it seems the edges weren't together enough. Have to give it three months to settle down before going back to the drs about it. The scar is about 2mm wide, and 2-3 cms long with the top half of the scar raised. The poor thing also ended up with an infection in it which can't have helped.

She is five and asks daily if her lump is going away yet.

I do think we are in the minority though.

Gosh Amelia,that is a nasty cut,your poor DD. the one thing I do know from last time,is that they said to me if the scar was wide then it could be revised when she was older,if she was old enough to sit very still then it could be done under a local. They would cut out the old scar and make a new one.,maybe that would be an option for your dd if it doesn't settle? I have also heard that lasers can be used on scars but I don't know anythong about that.

My DS1 has had (several years apart) 2 big and deep cuts on his forehead. The first was stitched by a facial surgeon c. 7 years ago - DS1 still has a pronounced scar, which he loves by the way as it makes him "hard" or Harry Potter He was 3 at the time and we were also advised against GA. DH and I had to physically hold him down while it was done, not nice but better than taking unecessary risks with GA I suppose.

The second was glued c. 6 months ago and is barely visible now. It also looked a bit messy when the job was done, but healed very quickly.

Helly, one of them was scar away here

Gosh sounds like your DD is having a rough time, the cut is in exactly the same place as my DDs and honestly unless you were trying to look for it you wouldn't notice it. The other thing is that after a while they do fade anyhow. My DS2 cut between his eyebrows when he was 2 (fell out of pushchair which tipped backwards even though he was strapped in and I was holding it, how bad did I feel) he had 6 stitches and he calls it his second smile but now he is 7 people don't really notice it unless we point it out as it has faded a lot, when he laughs you can see it but most people don't notice it then as they are looking at his eyes not the bit between them. He didn't have a GA because we told him what was going to happen, they wrapped him in blankets laid him down on top of me on the bed I bear hugged him, they put space rockets and aliens projected onto the ceiling and he was fine. They had wanted to give him a GA but at the time his hayfever was so bad that I was worried about his breathing and said no. They were amazed at how just talking him calmly through it made him sit at let it be done.

Would say glue heels better, DS2 has been glued 4 times, DS1 1 time and DD2 1 times. Compared to the 3 different lots of stitches they have had glue is much messier but then looks better after.

Tell her she is beautiful and anyone who says anything about her scar is jealous as they don't have one.

DS managed to put a tooth through his bottom lip leaving a hole. It was glued and it healed up really well and hardly noticeable.

Just wanted to add my Mum calls our their war wounds their character. Unfortunately due to her ability to find trouble DD has a lot of character - she will still always be the most beautiful girl in the world to me.
Also comparing techniques the steri- stripped wound above her eyebrow and the steri-stripped and glued wound on her forehead having tiny scars compared the huge surgical scar behind her right ear which was supposedly 'cosmetically closed' at 5 months of age.

Without doubt, gluing if done properly and carefully is best by miles. My father had a nasty four inch cut on top of his bald head. He caught it coming up too soon after ducking below a sheet metal sign!

The nurse at A&E glued it perfectly together brilliantly. There was barely any visible trace of it after a few months. Glue is painless to apply and completely seals the wound thus excluding infection the moment it dries. There is no need for anything to be removed it flakes away as new skin forms to replace it. perfect!

Stiches leave marks lines in themselves so drawing even more attention to the scar they leave. They are painful to apply. local anaesthetic is safer and better if it can be properly targeted and the child co-operates. GA should be a last resort. Sitiches can be burst, they often leave gaps to heal by secondary intention which creates a bigger scar as well as opening up underlying tissue to infection.

One poor girl, a teenager I saw on TV, had fallen through a dance floor which gave way. She caught her face on some sharp edge as she dropped though. This opened up a wound from her chin across her cheek to the top of her forehead at the opposite side. Glue might not have made her scar invisible but it would surely have been better than the hundreds of tramline stitches A&E applied.

I think a lot of nurses/doctors are prejudiced against glue and it should be used much more often than it is. Sterri strips are not necessary to support it because it is very strong, but they do no harm. I think the trick is to apply it skilfully. Staff training needed? Some people can obviously do this better than others, but that's the luck of life.

Best wishes for your daughter's good result. Sounds like there's every chance of a good one.

Suzannesee yes some do it better than others and to quote my DS7 the last time he was glued "wow mummy she was useless at the glue, maybe she needs to go on a refreshers course" to be fair to him she did drip it all down the side of his head and neck and we spent days picking it off, although to be fair to her he was very dopey when she did it with a severe concussion and kept falling asleep

I don't know why they didn't glue the first cut my dd had- I vaguely remember that it may have been to do with the depth of the cut, would that be likely? (it was deep)

maybe, that is why they didn't glue DSs 1st one, you could see his skull very clearly through it as he had somehow lost some tissue (may still be on B&Qs floor some 4 years on)

crikey,that must have been terrible,your poor ds (and poor you)

yes it was, I hadn't realised until I asked "what is that bit" to the paramedic who answered "it's his skull" and then proceeded to drive exceptionally fast through a crowded city to A&E with me strapped in the only available seat with DS on my lap (seatbelt round both of us), he was in a rapid response car. We left DH in B&Q with the other 3 DCs and he carried on finishing his shopping before coming to A&E to see if we were OK

How is your DD today? Hope she is feeling better

dd2 had a bad fall on to a console table in March , she split just below her eyebrow , it was glued and is barely noticeable now , hopefully it will fade further.

thanks for asking whenigeto3 -She is very clingy and not her usual self,i think she had a big fright and shock seeing the blood as it went all over my white shirt so was very noticable and dramatic. A friend came over with her twins today and dd just wanted to sit on my knee which is very unlike her,she is sociable normally.

By co-incidence, prior to needing gluing himself, my father had heard a talk by the guy - a doctor - who invented this method for closing wounds. He said it was widely used for abdominal surgery and cuts don't get much deeper than that. Gluing in these situations showed significantly better outcomes, principally because it creates what is virtually a 100% seal against infection. And, for those to whom it matters, a slimmer, neater, scar without stitch or clip tramlines :-)

Apparently the doctor had had a hard time convincing some of his colleagues on the advantages of glueing, which ticks all the boxes. He came up against professional jealousy and the 'not invented here' syndrome. As with many things, the medical profession divides into pro and anti camps.

I'm off Googling now to see what else I can find out about this topic.

DS1 fell in the school playground when he was five and landed on his friend's teeth It left a deep cut through his eyebrow which had to be glued back together. Four years later you can only see it if you look very, very closely.

DS2 fell onto the corner of a table about six months ago and split the back of his head open. It was glued back together. You can see where it was as the hair hasn't grown back along the line, but the actual scar isn't that bad.

Thanks for all the reassuring stories. I realise no-one gets to adulthood without their fair share cuts and bashes,but I can't bear to see her beautiful little face damaged. My DH isn't remotely bothered about it,other than that he wishes she wasn't hurt,obviously.The thought of her having a scar doesn't upset him at all.
Suzannesee that is amazing!so I could have had a glued up c-section? Maybe I'd have a better scar than the shelfy one I've got.