Kidney Dish Stainless Steel Emesis Basin, 18cm to 30cm

What a kidney dish is

It is a dish shaped like a kidney, and almost everything about it follows from the one concave edge. Lay a rectangular tray against somebody’s jaw and it touches in two places and gaps in the middle. Lay this against the same jaw and the curve closes. That is the whole invention, and nobody has improved on it.

The second thing to know is what it is called. Google’s own answer for kidney dish opens by naming three other words for it, and the first of them is emesis basin. In the United States that is the word on the supply list, the word the nurse says and the word buyers type, and it outsearches kidney dish here by a wide margin. They are the same object. We make one dish and this page answers to both names.

Third, there is the name problem underneath the name problem: the words this trade uses are also the words for a kitchen, which is why a page has to say plainly which one it is about. Search for a kidney dish and the engine will offer you a recipe. Google’s own answer says so in its own words, noting that the phrase can refer to a culinary preparation of animal kidneys. This page is about the stainless steel one that goes in an autoclave.

What it does, in the order a ward uses it. It takes the soiled dressing off a wound so the old gauze never touches a clean surface. It goes under a chin during an oral rinse or an ear irrigation. And where there is no room for a tray it holds four or five instruments. None of that needs a lid, which is why it has never had one.

The four sizes are four different jobs rather than four grades. The 18 cm goes on a dressing trolley; the 30 cm goes in a treatment room where somebody is going to be sick into it.

Key design features

The concave edge, which is the instrument

One long side curves in. Against a jaw, a neck or a forearm that curve closes the gap a straight edge leaves, and a closed edge is the difference between catching fluid and spreading it. The rest follows: sloping walls so the contents run to the middle, and a shallow depth so a hand gets in and out without tipping it.

Pressed, not fabricated

The dish comes out of one piece of sheet in a press and our own record calls the result a seamless finish: there is no seam for protein to dry into, which is why a drawn piece of holloware outlasts a fabricated one. A fabricated dish is cheaper to tool and it is the one that fails first, at the joint.

Satin finish rather than mirror

A mirror finish photographs better and works worse, because it throws operating light straight back at the person trying to use it. Satin scatters it, and it also hides the fine scratching every piece of holloware picks up in a washer.

Four names for one object

Emesis basin is the American word and kidney dish the British one. Kidney tray and kidney bowl both turn up on supply lists, and older nursing texts say emesis tray or pus basin. One dish, and the names are the trade’s rather than features.

Which size to order

Four sizes, and the honest guide is what the dish is standing on rather than how big the patient is. Every figure below is off our own size list.

Where it is used

Where it turns up, drawn from what Google’s own answer lists and from the sets this dish is already sold into. The right hand column is the one that decides the size.

What it is not for

A dish with no lid has a short list of things it cannot do, and it is better said here than found out later.

How it compares with the other holloware

Four pieces in this category and they are not interchangeable. This is the honest split, and the prices are our own.

Materials and finish

Every kidney dish we make is pressed from high quality medical grade stainless steel. The steel itself is made to a German specification. We do not publish a grade number. A certificate says nothing about how a dish holds its edge after four hundred washer cycles, or whether the press left the rim true. The answer to that is in the making rather than in the alloy.

The finish is satin and the edges are smooth and rounded, so there is nothing to catch a glove. The piece is passivated after forming, the step that restores the chromium oxide layer the press disturbs. Fully autoclavable. Our record does not state the rim form, so this page does not describe one.

Caring for it

Rinse it before the blood dries, because dried protein is the one thing that defeats a washer on a smooth surface. Wash it face down so water drains rather than pooling, and dry it before it goes in a drawer. Stacked wet, steel stains where two pieces touch, and that brown mark is iron out of the water rather than rust in the dish.

No steel wool and no chlorine cleaner. Steel wool leaves iron particles that rust on their own and look like the dish failing. Chlorine pits the surface, and a pitted dish never comes clean again.

Ordering and wholesale

The kidney dish is made by Adas Instruments in our own workshop and sold direct, which is why the price sits where it does against the catalog houses. Order one for a single tray, or in quantity for a hospital list or a distributor line. We do OEM work under your own brand and your own item numbers. Send us a sample and we will hold a run to your pattern rather than ours. Stock items ship from our own workshop. Backorder items take 10 to 12 working days to make. Every instrument carries a three year replacement warranty against manufacturing defects. Production is controlled under an ISO 13485 quality management system.

Frequently asked questions

What is a kidney dish used for?

Three jobs. Taking soiled dressings and gauze off a wound; sitting against a jaw, a neck or a forearm to catch rinse water, irrigation fluid or vomit; and holding a few instruments where there is no room for a tray. The curved edge is what makes the second job work, and the second job is why the shape exists.

What is another name for a kidney dish?

Emesis basin, and in the United States that is the main name rather than the alternative. Kidney tray and kidney bowl are both used on supply lists, and older nursing texts say emesis tray or pus basin. Google’s own answer leads with emesis basin, kidney tray and kidney bowl in its first sentence. One object, several words.

Why are emesis basins kidney shaped?

So one edge can sit flat against a curved body. A straight edge touches a jaw or a forearm at two points and leaves a gap between them, and fluid finds the gap. The concave edge closes it. The sloping walls then run the contents to the middle so nothing sits against the rim where it can run back out.

How big is a kidney dish?

Ours come in four sizes measured along the long axis: 18 cm, 20 cm, 25 cm and 30 cm, which supply lists also write as 7, 8, 10 and 12 inches. The 20 cm is the general ward size. The 30 cm is the one to order if the dish is going to be held under somebody’s chin.

Can a stainless steel kidney dish be autoclaved?

Yes, and that is the reason to buy steel rather than pulp or plastic. A stainless steel emesis basin takes a full steam cycle as often as you like, it goes through a washer disinfector with the instruments, and it does not warp or discolor. A paper pulp dish is single use and a plastic one is washed at low temperature.

Related products and categories

For holding a fluid rather than catching one, the mixing solution bowl, which is built for that and not for this. To take a set through the autoclave and keep it covered afterwards, the steel sterilization box, and for a large set that still has to be carried, the aluminum sterilization box.

This dish is also stocked with the ear instruments, because catching irrigation fluid is half of what it does in that clinic. The rest of the range is under holloware and sterilization.