Devices for Securely Closing Tissue Openings with Minimized Scarring

A tissue closure device for non-invasively closing a tissue opening, the device comprising:

• an assembled pair of substantially identical closure components, each component having:
• a tissue attachment base with an attachment mechanism on a first side thereof for affixing the attachment base to a patient's skin, wherein the tissue attachment base is comprised of a first portion and a second portion;
• a standoff assembly mounted on a second side of the attachment base and adjacent to the first portion of the tissue attachment base, wherein the standoff assembly and the second portion of the tissue attachment base have equal widths and the first portion of the tissue attachment base has a width wider than the widths of the standoff assembly and the second portion of the tissue attachment base;
• a toothed pull-tab, having first and second ends, coupled to the attachment base through the standoff assembly and defining a longitudinal axis, the standoff assembly having a forward face, to which the first end of the pull-tab is affixed, and an opposed rearward face, the forward face including a sloped portion that is sloped rearward as it approaches the attachment base;
• a female connective element, mounted on the second side of the attachment base, and built into the standoff assembly, that receives and engages the pull-tab from the other component and into which the pull-tab from the other component has been placed,
• wherein each pull-tab has a length sufficient to reach and be received by the female connective element of the other closure component, the second end of the pull-tab protruding from the female connective element, so that, when the assembled pair is affixed to the patient's skin with each of the attachment bases disposed on an opposite side of the tissue opening, force applied to second ends of the pull-tabs causes the second ends of the pull-tabs to be pulled away from each other, to bring the sloped portions of the forward faces of the components into substantial contact with one another at a location of contact and to cause each standoff assembly to pivot about the location of contact, so as to induce eversion of tissue edges that defined the tissue opening.