Vertical abdominal incisions—a choice?

Abstract

Summary: A prospective randomized trial was carried out on 207 patients undergoing laparotomy using three different vertical abdominal incisions–midline, ‘medial’ paramedian incision and ‘lateral’ paramedian incision. The lateral paramedian incision is slightly more time-consuming to perform than the other two incisions but there is a statistically greater incidence of incisional hernia in midline and medial paramedian wounds than with the lateral paramedian incision. It is suggested that when a vertical abdominal incision is being considered the lateral paramedian should be the incision of choice.