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Evidence summaries

Tissue Adhesives for Traumatic Lacerations of Children and Adults

Tissue adhesives lead to similar cosmetic outcomes as standard wound closure with less pain and less time needed for treatment. Level of evidence: "A"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 13 studies. Eleven studies compared a tissue adhesive with standard wound closure. No significant difference was found for cosmesis at any of the time points examined, using either Cosmetic Visual Analogue Scale (CVAS) or Wound Evaluation Score (WES). Data were only available for subgroup analysis for age; no significant differences were found. Pain scores (Parent VAS WMD -13.4 mm; 95% CI -20.0 to -6.9) and procedure time (WMD -4.7 minutes; 95% CI -7.2 to -2.1 significantly favoured tissue adhesives. Only one study reported on ease of use, favouring standard wound closure. Small but statistically significant risk differences were found for dehiscence (favouring standard wound care NNH 40 95% CI 20 to 1168) and erythema (favouring tissue adhesive NNH 10 95% CI 5 to 239). Other complications were not significantly different between treatment groups.

Date of last search: 2007-09-30

    References

    • Farion K, Osmond MH, Hartling L et al. Tissue adhesives for traumatic lacerations in children and adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2002;(3):CD003326. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords