Skin Incision Skewness at Cesarean Section

Medical University of Vienna

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Cesarean Section

Treatments: Procedure: Drawing of an incision line

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03273777

1641_2016

Details and patient eligibility

About

Skin incision skewness, incision length on both sides of the midline and patient's perception of the scar after cesarean section will be compared between the following two groups: (1) Drawing of an incision line prior to skin incision and (2) no drawing of an incision line.

Full description

Some aspects of the surgical techniques employed during cesarean section have already been evaluated in regards to possible improvements of cosmetic outcome, such as the use of different skin closure materials or whether subcutaneous fat suture closure leads to better results than non-closure. Another point to be considered is the skewness of the scar. Many surgeons make the skin incision based on their experience without prior measurement and drawing of an incision line. However, following a predefined incision line may reduce the rate of skew incisions. Therefore, this study aims to compare these two approaches to the skin incision.

Participating women will be recruited at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Medical University of Vienna. They will be included into the study after written informed consent and will be randomized into one of the two groups (drawing of an incision line prior to skin incision versus no drawing of an incision line) on the day of cesarean section.

Skewness of the skin incision in each group will be assessed after cesarean section. Furthermore, it will be determined whether there are any differences in the incision length on both sides of an imaginary line from the umbilicus to the clitoris between these two techniques. Additionally, patient's perception of the scar before discharge from hospital will be assessed.

Enrollment: 86 estimated patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age ≥ 18 years
• First cesarean section

Exclusion criteria

• Performance of an acute cesarean section
• Previous cesarean section
• Body mass index > 35 kg/m²

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

86 participants in 2 patient groups

Drawing of an incision line

Experimental group

Description:

An incision line of 14 cm will be drawn using a conventional surgical ruler and pen before skin incision.

Treatment:

Procedure: Drawing of an incision line

No drawing of an incision line

No Intervention group

Description:

Skin incision will be carried out without previous drawing of an incision line.