To the Editor.—The article, "A New Sutureless Technique For Skin Closure" (Arch Surg 111:83-84, 1976) by Hasson and colleagues presents an ingenious method for approximating the skin edges without the necessity of perforating the dermis.
The method differs from the use of "butterfly" closure in that the tension on the individual closure devices is adjustable without necessitating removal and/or reapplication of material, and in the ability to avoid actual contact of adhesive-coated surfaces to the wound edge itself.
It strikes me that a great debt is owed some unknown physician—perhaps Imhotep—who lived and died some time prior to 2500 bc. It was he who first described the sutureless closure—of which the present communication details only a nicety in evolution.
At the time of the writing of The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus–translated and retranscribed some time during 1600 bc—the "butterfly" dressing for wound closure was already in