Making the Incision Demonstration

00:05 In this video I'm going to describe how to make your incision.

00:07 I have a scalpel that is loaded on a scalpel handle.

00:11 You may have a disposable or you may be using a nondisposable.

00:14 This is a 10 blade.

00:16 And you can see that there's a bit of a curve to this.

00:18 As opposed to an 11 blade which is a straight blade with a point on it.

00:21 Either works fine, but realize that the most common application for skin incisions for surgeries will be a 10 blade, which is what I have here.

00:29 You can use these in your dominant hand.

00:31 And notice the technique here is your thumb and middle finger holding the side those little nubs and then the back of the blade is being secured with your index finger.

00:40 Okay, you don't want to slice it on an angle one way or the other.

00:44 I want to set it straight down, push a little pressure in, secure the tissue, and make an incision. Okay.

00:54 I may need to do a little bit more to make sure it's nice and vertical on the edges.

01:02 I'm very happy with that incision. No big deal.

01:05 What you don't want to do is kind of zigzag through it.

01:09 And then you're going to see all these little notches like a lightning bolt through it. Okay.

01:12 One smooth move on the skin.

01:15 Don't be afraid to help secure the skin as you're going.

01:18 Just to help make sure that it doesn't really get bound up or kind of pull on one way or the other.

01:24 That can happen in real life too.

01:26 Depending on how much connective tissue there is in that tissue or not.

01:29 Let's make our incisions.