Clinical Pearl: Use of Indian Dinner Plate ‘Thali’ as a Surgery Tray in Dermatosurgery and Aesthetics

Dear Editor,

A surgical instrument tray or a basin is generally used while performing dermatosurgery procedures. The disadvantage of using this conventional tray is the lack of separate compartments which often leads to mixing of the various items making it inconvenient while locating and picking up the needed instrument or syringe. Often more than one tray or basin may be needed.

To overcome this disadvantage, we, hereby, present the use of a regular Indian dinner plate with recesses or compartments (known commonly as ‘thali plate’) as a substitute to the conventional surgical tray [Figure 1]. The household stainless steel thali can be incorporated in day-to-day dermatosurgical procedures as an effective container to hold instruments, syringes, wet gauze, dry gauze, betadine-soaked gauze, spirit gauze, radiofrequency probes, peel solutions, etc., in separate compartments to facilitate ease of use during surgery/procedures.

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Figure 1

Stainless steel dinner plate or ‘thali’

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The advantages of this ‘thali’ are that it is made of stainless steel and hence is easy to sterilise through autoclaving. Moreover, it is light weight and easy to handle. The multiple recesses/compartments prevent mixing of the various contents and also make it easy for the surgeon to efficiently obtain the required instrument or object with minimal effort. The presence of these multiple compartments, by creating a physical barrier, also prevents cross-contamination as a used swab can be kept separately. This simple household utensil is very cost effective costing only 200-300 rupees and is easily available in any kitchen utensil shop.

The use of a similar tray was mentioned in a paper by Kumar and Parsad in 2014, wherein they used a single-use plastic tray. The advantage of using a stainless steel thali over the modification suggested by Parsad et al. is that the thali is re-usable and can be sterilised by autoclaving.[1]

The figure shows the use of this thali for different procedures like skin biopsy [Figure 2] and can also be used in a specialised surgical procedures such as epidermal cell suspension method of vitiligo surgery and an aesthetic procedure such as a chemical peel or Botulinum toxin injection. The contents of the thali tray can be modified as per the requirements of the surgery. Covering of the thali to prevent contamination is not necessary since the procedure is immediately carried out after preparation of the tray.

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Figure 2

Tray for routine skin biopsy containing betadine gauze, dry gauze, biopsy container with formalin, cotton-tip applicator and instruments

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