Pagliaro Thomas, Coates Dougal
Nambour General Hospital, Nambour, QLD, Australia.
Dermatology Specialist Centre, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Australas J Dermatol. 2016 May;57(2):135-6. doi: 10.1111/ajd.12405. Epub 2015 Oct 13.
Measurement of the shape and size of skin lesions is an important component of skin excision and repair, especially in full-thickness skin grafting. Current templating methods can be time-consuming and may lead to inaccurate sizing of both full-thickness and split-thickness skin grafts. A novel, accurate, and time-efficient method has been employed for 10 years in a dermatology clinic, in addition demonstrating utility in additional applications. A surgical glove is used to gain an imprint of a marked surgical incision site, to transcribe to the donor site for graft harvest. Further, the size of lesions in difficult-to-see areas of the body can be shown to patients. This method has been found to be clinically useful in reducing procedure times and providing accurate graft templates, as well as improving patients' satisfaction by helping them to understand the procedure. This method is also advantageous in obtaining informed consent by helping to clearly demonstrate the size of simple elliptical excisions.
