Patient/caregiver was educated on precautions to be observed while cutting the wafer/skin barrier as follows:
- The back of the wafers could have cutting guides, denoting the lines of cut appropriate to the individual stoma size. If the wafer has the cutting guide and the user is pretty aware of the stoma size, one can go ahead with cutting along the defined line to make a hole on the wafer appropriate to their stoma size.
- If the wafer is lacking the cutting guide or the user is unsure of the stoma size, then it requires some additional work of using the stoma measuring guide. After picking the hole on the stoma measuring guide that is closest in measure to your stoma, you can superimpose the hole picked on to the back of your wafer. While doing this, try superimposing the measuring guide hole picked on to the center on the back of the wafer. This allows cutting the wafer with adhesive distributed evenly around the cut. This helps a good fix of the wafer to the skin around the stoma. Presence of surgical incisions or wounds in the vicinity of the stoma mandates superimposing the measuring guide hole picked towards the corresponding edge on the back of the wafer. Even in this situation, remember not to cut the wafer completely to the edge, as it can compromise the adhesive along the edge of wafer and result in poor attachment to the skin around the stoma.
- Using a marker you can draw a circle on the wafer, by running the marker along the periphery of the hole picked on the measuring guide. Then, you can go ahead with cutting along the line drawn on the back of the wafer, to make a hole on the wafer appropriate to your stoma size.
