Steri-strip Demonstration

00:04 One of the best things you can think of when you're trying to close wounds is is there a way for me to close this without suturing? And the benefit to the patient is, it's going to make it less traumatic, less painful.

00:15 You don't have to provide anesthesia, All you're doing then is just approximating a non-tension inclusive wound.

00:22 So step one of that comment is it has to be a non-tension inclusive wound.

00:27 Just a simple laceration, no big deal.

00:30 Steri strips are going to be your friends, if that's the case.

00:32 All right. So simply open these up.

00:35 you'll find that they're bigger than you need, very easy to just cut them to the right size.

00:40 A lot of times is going in half with them is great. Okay.

00:50 And yes, you can cut in a pretty straight line with the curve scissor.

00:53 You just don't cut the whole length of the scissor.

00:56 Okay, when you pull this little tab off, you're able to do more than just take them off one at a time, and set them on a wound.

01:03 You can actually put them the way you want them, set them down.

01:09 Okay, apply some pressure to these, because they're heat sensitive.

01:16 Okay, it's a big part of it. It getting good about heat on them.

01:19 And then expand this.

01:26 Make sure that you have your wound edge the way you want it.

01:30 Get it nice and controlled.

01:32 And then you can do the rest of them.

01:34 Okay, kind of [unintelligible] ha. Not a big deal.

01:37 But I don't see that done very frequently.

01:40 If you put them in there, one by one, they kind of look however they look.

01:44 But there's a reason that little strip is there.

01:45 So you can get them off easier, but also so, so that you can do this in a very controlled manner and make it look very nice.

01:53 Okay, so get them all lined up the way you want.

01:55 Put some heat on it.

01:57 Again, that heat makes a big difference.

02:00 You can put some massive salt down first, if you want to help it be a little bit tighter, for longer.

02:05 And you typically, we'll see these start to kind of peel off on the edges in about a week or so.

02:16 Okay. And just like that, instead of saying it took all that time to put steri strips on, you just put them all on there and it took a minute, all right.

02:25 So very easy way to put steri's on there.

02:28 And the uniform the tension is uniform on the wound.

02:30 It's going to give you a very nice approximation on that tissue.

02:34 Again, tissue not under tension, this is a very beneficial way of doing this. Okay.

02:39 Another thing to consider, if you have a wound where you have like the flat laceration we dealt with earlier, what you can do, I think this is a really great idea.

02:49 If you have really thin fragile skin as you can treat your tissue with the steri strips, kind of like a bolster.

02:59 Okay gives you something to help secure it to.

03:03 Now this won't secure very well to it because it's silicone.

03:05 But that said, you will be able to, in real life, have this secure to the edge of your wound.

03:12 And if you do this on both sides, you can bolster it and it's going to give you some strength.

03:20 Okay, now why would I do it like that? Well, if I'm actually going to put a suture through this, and you put together what it will do is it acts kind of like the lines and packing tape for mailboxes, and shipping for Amazon or whatever.

03:36 That stuff that's in it, those little chords give you some security when it pulls it together, and also makes it really nice to approximate and protects your wound edge.

03:45 Now the alternative, that you can certainly do, if you don't prefer to do that is to just cross your wounds, and then you just put them like this.

03:53 Okay, not a big deal.

03:55 Again, it's not going to stick very well to silicone.

03:57 But you can make it look just like I did here.

04:00 And it would be very effective to not be traumatic to a flap that we're concerned about.

04:05 Our goal is again with a flat black, we want to protect it at all costs.

04:10 So I may put them across like this, and put them across like this.

04:15 And something like that and just give it some time.

04:21 Let it heal and see how it comes out.

04:23 So again, if nothing else, just realize that there are some little tricks you can use with steri strips, and it makes your life a lot easier if you're not putting them on one by one.

04:31 Use this as a way to make it go a little quicker. Okay.

04:34 All right. Go ahead and practice that with your steri strips.