What Are the Most Common Tools Used in Custom Procedure Trays?
Custom procedure trays are arguably one of the most useful items in health facilities today. The trays are used to hold surgical instruments to be used in a procedure. The items contained in the tray are neatly arranged to suit the procedure to be undertaken in the operating room. The tray may contain a wide array of items that can fall into various categories including holding instruments such as smooth and toothed forceps, hemostatic instruments such as atraumatic hemostatic forceps, cutting and dissecting items such as scalpel, tissue unifying instruments such as surgical needles, and retractors such as a blunt-toothed hook. You may find use for these instruments when going to perform a procedure “on the table”. Here are other tools that are commonly used in custom procedure trays.
Bone cutter
This is a surgical item used to cut or remove bones. There are many types of bone cutters to be used in procedures including;
- Reciprocating – this is a powered rotary oscillation usually applied to a specialized cutting instrument to formulate cuts that are controllable and smooth. Reciprocating bone cutters are used on many bones such as rib and skull.
- Costotome – this is a sophisticated rib cutter used to gain access to the thoracic cavity. This specialized bone cutter has two levers; one is used to grab the rib while the other cuts it.
- Unpowered – Refers to a number of bone cutting instruments such as the hacksaw, saber saw among others. The saw is used on special occasions to conduct accurate cuts during surgeries. The Gigli saw is preferred in some procedures as well.
- Sonic – This is a revolutionary cutter that is still being experimented. It includes using high-frequency sound to remove a bone to be cut. The production of such cutters to be used for tissues is also underway.
Dermatome
A dermatome is a ground-breaking medical apparatus used to create thin slices of skin to make skin grafts. Dermatomes are commonly used to reconstruct skin areas damaged by grade 3 burns or trauma. This surgical instrument can be operated both manually and electrically. An example of a manual dermatome is the free-hand knife. Unfortunately, free-hand knives have a higher likelihood of producing grafts with irregular edges.
Drum dermatomes were the first kind of dermatomes to be developed and were first used in 1930. Other forms of dermatomes followed suit including the ones that were operated using air pressure such as the brown dermatome. The later has been lauded by medical experts mainly due to its precision and higher speed compared to the drum dermatome. Soon after the brown dermatomes were developed, the electrical dermatomes followed and later they became popular for cutting longer and thinner strips of skin.
Dilator
The dilator (also known as dilatator) is a medical term with many meanings. First, it’s a medical instrument used for dilation induction. Dilation refers to the expansion of a passage such as urethra or the cervix. A dilator could also be used to refer to a pharmacological treatment for the purpose of inducing dilation like cervical dilation or vasodilation.
The surgical instruments hereby mentioned are just some of the items that can be used in a custom tray. Many more medical instruments can be used with a custom procedure tray in an operation room. It’s crucial to ensure that the custom tray and the surgical instruments are sterilized before use to avoid contamination that could risk the life of patients. The operation is likely to be successful if you follow all the procedure rules accordingly.
