Wound care is a career in itself. Punctures, burns, poor circulation areas, critical areas like eye lids, keloids, etc., etc. Ryan has said that burns are one of the most common injuries in backpacking. This is an oversimplification of a complex topic that is from my fortunately limited experience in the field. I am not an field expert. And you might be getting the drift that my first aid bag is not light when with a group.
Sorry for the long story, but it illustrates a good point. Wounds have been healing quite nicely for a million years on their own if kept clean. As a young resident on plastic surgery rotation, a patient went thru the windshield with brain injuries and massive facial cuts, some with loss of tissue. She could not tolerate an anesthetic. The old timer staff doc told me to clean her wounds and redress them three times per day with moist dressings. In 3-4 weeks her wounds looked as good if not better than if we had repaired them. Nature is pretty efficient. In my experience, over the counter cyanoacrylates are good for clean, simple, non tension wounds, especially in kids who heal so quickly, but not so good in my old, leathery, sun damaged skin. Think shallow knife cut on an area that would not be stressed during the healing. Not like palm of hand or elbow. It works well with closing surgical wounds if the muscle and facia are closed with sutures. The advantage of leukotape is strong support for wounds under tension. The big disadvantage is lack of visualization of the wound to catch infections. Tegaderm, a clear bandage, solves this issue. BTW, I use benzoin in the little glass vials for better adherence with steristrips. If they leak, the smell will be with you forever and ever. Steve’s twist technique is interesting in solving the adherence to the wound and steristrips as well as visualization issues.
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