On Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:52:55 -0500, the infamous Bob Engelhardt
scrawled the following:

Larry Jaques wrote:
... A hospital probably would have given
me a dozen stitches, but it healed on its own (with the butterfly
bandage) in a couple weeks with minimal fuss and pain. ERs are highly
overrated.
...

Reminds me of a study/trial that I read about treating wounds in 3rd
world countries. The study was done in Haiti, IIRC.

In the trial, a hospital compared traditional suturing of wounds with
the use of butterfly bandages to close them. There were some pretty
serious cuts: as much as 1 cm deep and as much as 10 cm long, IIRC. The
prep was the same for both treatments. I.e., they just didn't slap the
butterflies on.

The butterflies did just as well as suturing. Which was great news for
them, since in the 3rd world, suturing has a considerable cost: the use
of a local anesthetic and an MD to do it.

Yes, that's good news. Butterflying has to be done quickly, though,
before the wound has a chance to dry up or die at the cut ends, I
would hazard to guess.

I think mine was roughly 1cm deep about 1cm down my finger into the
nail, with maybe .8cm of meat involved, plus half the nail. I bled
like a stuck pig. A dull knife would have caused a lot more pain, I'm
sure, so I was lucky.


Still, if I ever do another partial amputation of a finger, I'm going to
let the ER handle it G.

I hope I never have to butterfly a deep wound again, too.
Self-mutilation doesn't thrill me at all, TYVM.

--
Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas
to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label
of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem
important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.
-- Thomas J. Watson