Tricks of the Trade: Tissue adhesives and tegaderm

Posted by Michelle Lin, MD on

Tissue adhesives for wound closure often seem to intentionally make a bee-line straight for high-risk areas such as the eye. To avoid inadvertent application of the tissue adhesive, Dr. Hagop Afarian (UCSF-Fresno) utilizes a transparent tegaderm tape with an oval cut out of the center to provide a protective barrier. Immediately after application of the tissue adhesive, the tegaderm can be carefully peeled off to reveal a still-drying, well-circumscribed aliquot of glue over the wound. Be sure that the wound is dry, and the edges are well-apposed prior to tissue adhesive application.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Hagop Afarian (UCSF-Fresno)

This clinical pearl was highlighted in one of the 2008 ACEP News Tricks of the Trade columns which I co-authored with Hagop.

Author information

ALiEM Founder and CEO
Professor and Digital Innovation Lab Director
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

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