[B]Superglue II[/B]

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

tegs15

Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
May 2, 2004
Messages
249
Reaction score
1
(actually occured a few years ago while a ED Tech in AZ)

Middle aged woman comes into the ED with both eyes superglued shut. Unluckily for her the glue was with in the eye as well as superficially. She was sun bathing outside and doing her nails, at some point the AZ sun warmed the glue a little much and as she opened the bottle to attach more faux nails it exploded! In our modern EDs today how would someone treat this patient? :(

I'll let you know what we did after I get some current plans.

Members don't see this ad.
 
superglue is fun!
 
Under the INSTRUCTION of the EP I warmed vaseline in the microwave until it was luke-warm, then placed it on 4x4s and wiped it on the superglue until it started to break down. As soon as I got the eye lids separated I opened the eye and placed more vaseline directly on the conjuctiva and cornea, closed the eye lid and made small concentric massaging circles externally on the skin of the eye lid, using vaseline to decrease the friction between the 4x4s and skin. As every few minutes I would pull back the eye lid and look for glue pieces that had been freed up and remove them. Then add more vaseline and repeat. It lasted for almost 2hrs with the patient screaming and crying in pain, every few minutes I had to stop to allow her to catch her breath and gain more courage. I can only imagine how irritating and painful it must have been. She wasn't really pleased with me.....probably why the Dr didn't check in on the pt until it was all over. In the end I was able to remove all the glue, both with-in and on the eye lids and supposedly there was no permanent eye damage either.

Has anyone ever heard of this before?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I probably would have called in ophtho because I'm a lowly student and wouldn't have a clue.
 
i know about the vaseline and petroleum based products because on the Dermabond instructions, they tell you not to use antibiotic ointments because it can cause breakdown of the material.

seems only logical that the same would be true for superglue.
 
Get the morgan lens and hang paint thinner....

erythromycin ophth. ointment has worked fine for me.
 
Same for me. Erythromycin ointment and f/u with optho the next day. My lady thought it was her visine eye drops.

The optho guy couldn't believe the story..
 
Who keeps their superglue next to their visine?
 
I was wondering that. I do have a bottle of Visine (overnight contact lens wearer... they're a bit dry in the mornings) on my nightstand. I cannot fathom why I'd keep a bottle of my favorite cyanoacrylate next to that.
 
I am waiting for the Superglue and Sex thread...

"These two patients came in on one stretcher, she reached for the lube and got things ready, just jumped on and thats where she stopped. Evidently, her b/f had been trying to fix his glasses earlier that evening and left the super glue on the night stand"....
 
Same for me. Erythromycin ointment and f/u with optho the next day. My lady thought it was her visine eye drops.

The optho guy couldn't believe the story..
I had an LPN I was working do this, while on the clock...glued her eye completely shut. Had to send her to the ER, it was the VA, so they sent her to another hospital.
Hate to say, I was privately laughing at her...she just reached into her purse, pulled out a tube, squirted it in her eye without looking, and then realized it wasn't her eye drops. Well, you know the other hospital was probably cracking jokes about the intelligence of VA nurses.
 
I thought about asking, but she was obviously very embarassed about the situation already, so I didn't bother. My talk to the optho guy was "You're not gonna believe this, but, ...." We both got a little laugh about it, and I tried to open her eye, but sent her out with the ointment.

Called the optho guy the next day and he said it worked perfectly.
 
I was wondering that. I do have a bottle of Visine (overnight contact lens wearer... they're a bit dry in the mornings) on my nightstand. I cannot fathom why I'd keep a bottle of my favorite cyanoacrylate next to that.

Not nearly as bad, but I, also an overnight contacts wearer, once had a bottle of Swim-ear (95% isopropyl alcohol) next to my eye drops. The result the morning that I mixed the two were extremely painful. That and all my patients on my medicine clerkship looked at me very strangely with my freakishly red eye. Good times. Third year was bad in so many ways.
 
Not nearly as bad, but I, also an overnight contacts wearer, once had a bottle of Swim-ear (95% isopropyl alcohol) next to my eye drops. The result the morning that I mixed the two were extremely painful. That and all my patients on my medicine clerkship looked at me very strangely with my freakishly red eye. Good times. Third year was bad in so many ways.

Oh wow... that must've made for a miserable morning.
 
Happened to me last week - glued a guy's eye halfway shut by accident. I used erythromycin ointment and worked it open.


I have our interns put the ointment around the eye BEFORE using dermabond near the eye, to keep this from happening.
 
Top