Surgical skin marking pen
Sterile single-use pen with biocompatible ink (typically gentian violet) for marking the clinical margin of a lesion before excision.
How it is used
Preoperative marking of the safety margin (e.g. 4-5mm in non-melanoma skin cancer) after examining the lesion under good light and, if needed, a dermatoscope.
Clinical tip
Published cases of iatrogenic tattooing from retained ink recommend disclosing the risk in the consent form and cleaning the mark off at the end.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.