TORONTO (Reuters Life!) — A new surgical technique using glue to repair breastbones intentionally broken during open-heart surgery speeds up recovery time and is "substantially less painful" for patients, a University of Calgary scientist said.

The standard practice in operating rooms is to sew the breastbone back together with wire after open-heart surgery.

That procedure takes weeks to heal and often requires strong pain medication to withstand, said Dr. Paul Fedak, a cardiac surgeon at Foothills Medical Center in Calgary, Alberta, and a scientist at the university's faculty of medicine.

"We can now heal the breastbone in hours instead of weeks after open-heart surgery," Fedak, who pioneered the new procedure, said in a statement.

The procedure uses a special adhesive called "Kryptonite," made by Doctors Research Group Inc of Connecticut.