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Surgical pearl: A novel use of adhesive tape for transfer and resizing of ultrathin skin graft
*Corresponding author: Muhammed Mukhtar, Department of Dermatology, Mukhtar Skin Centre, Katihar Medical College Road, Katihar, Bihar, India. drmmukhtar20@gmail.com
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Received: ,
Accepted: ,
How to cite this article: Mukhtar M, Mukhtar S. Surgical pearl: A novel use of adhesive tape for transfer and resizing of ultrathin skin graft. CosmoDerma 2023;3:47.
PROBLEM
An ultrathin skin graft is a thin and delicate structure, like epidermal grafts. After harvestation, the graft is generally transferred with the help of a glass slide and forceps. However, transfer and resizing of the graft are difficult for a large graft when obtaining small grafts for multiple small vitiligo lesions, and there is graft loss due to over grafting of a large graft on small lesions.
SOLUTION
To solve the difficulties related to handling, transferring, and resizing the ultrathin, delicate skin graft, a piece or strip of ultraviolet-sterilized micropore adhesive tape is used. First of all, the graft is harvested with a Gillette Guard-1 blade, keeping one edge of the graft attached to the donor site [Figure 1a]. Then, the harvested graft is repositioned over its donor site, keeping the dermal side of the graft facing down [Figure 1b], and then, the graft is stretched out with a glass slide, hypodermic needle, or syringe barrel at the site. Following that, the sterile micropore tape is pressed over the well-spread graft [Figure 1c], and the tape is gently pulled aside to detach the remaining attached margin of the graft [Figure 1d and Video 1]. After this, the graft with tape is resized easily without any confusion and patched onto the dermabraded vitiligo lesions [Figure 2a-d]. A micropore adhesive tape can also be used in the same manner to transfer a pedunculated deroofed suction blister epidermal graft. Following this, the site is dressed with an occlusive bandage and topical antibiotic ointment to avoid drying of the graft.
- (a-d) The different steps of the transfer of an ultrathin skin graft with adhesive tape.
- (a-d) The large graft tape template is resized into three small grafts.
Video 1:
Video 1:The graft is being detached from the donor site with help of adhesive tape.Declaration of patient consent
Patient’s consent not required as patients identity is not disclosed or compromised.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
Videos available online at
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
