Cut on thumb - General Health Message Board

newyorkkopter · 12-14-2005, 03:54 PM

Hi, I was doing some car modeling work with a hobby knife and I cut my thumb on monday. Right after the cut I applied pressure and covered with a bandage. The bleeding stopped almost immediately. the cut itself is a little less than half a cm long and half of it has healed and closed. The cut is on the top of my left thumb, like behind the nail on the other side of my thumb. The part of the cut thats on top is less than or about 1 mm open width wise. Its like a mm deep. when i spread it apart i just see a slight red. Should I get stiches or something for this?? Please any help would be greatly appreciated

_mystictiger_ · 12-14-2005, 05:01 PM

It sounds like you dont need any stitches. Pulling the cut apart wont help it to heal lol. You need some butterfly stitches. You can buy these over the counter and they pull the cut closed which helps in the healing process.

newyorkkopter · 12-14-2005, 06:38 PM

o ok so its nothing too serious right?? What exactly are butteryfly stitches?do they involve a needle?

kehorner · 12-14-2005, 06:59 PM

It's too late to get stitches. Those need to be done generally within a certain number of hours. What the previous poster was refering to are called butterfly closure strips. Basically it's like a bandaid except instead of a pad in the middle, it's a thin strip. So you sort of pinch the wound closed and then use the strip to keep it closed so it can heal up.

newyorkkopter · 12-15-2005, 05:06 AM

so is that a bad thing that its too late for stitches?? also if you dont use the butterfly stitches will the cut close automatically?