WEDNESDAY, March 6, 2024 -- For patients with sutured wounds, application of 2-octyl cyanoacrylate (2-OCA) tends to be preferred by patients and observers, although there are no significant differences in scar cosmesis, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Zachary Kwapnoski, M.D., from the University of California Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento, and colleagues compared the cosmetic outcome and patient wound care satisfaction for an intermediate suture closure and for an intermediate suture closure followed by the application of 2-OCA in a randomized split-scar study involving 50 patients. Following intermediate sutured closure of a surgical defect, one side of the wound received an additional application of 2-OCA. The scar was assessed using the Patient and Observer Assessment Scale (POSAS) tool after three months; wound care preferences were reported by patients.

The researchers found that the mean sum of observer POSAS was 12.80 and 12.40 for sutured closure alone and sutured closure followed by 2-OCA, respectively. Both patients and observers tended to favor the 2-OCA treated side in a majority of POSAS components. This trend was also seen for the wound care questionnaire. For most components of wound care, patients favored the use of additional 2-OCA, although the trends were not significant.

"Our study did not find statistically significant differences in wound care," the authors write. "However, all but one of our wound care questions (comfortability of dressing) tended to favor the 2-OCA treated side."