title: Finding the best abdominal closure: an evidence-based review of the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite advances in surgical technique and materials, abdominal fascial closure has remained a procedure that often reflects a surgeon's personal preference with a reliance on tradition and anecdotal experience. The value of a particular abdominal fascial closure technique may be measured by the incidence of early and late wound complications, and the best abdominal closure technique should be fast, easy, and cost-effective, while preventing both early and late complications. This study addresses the closure of the vertical midline laparotomy incision.
  
  
  METHODS
  A MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland) search was performed. All articles related to abdominal fascia closure published from 1966 to 2003 were included in the review.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Careful analysis of the current surgical literature, including 4 recently published meta-analyses, indicates that a consistent conclusion can be made regarding an optimal technique. That technique involves mass closure, incorporating all of the layers of the abdominal wall (except skin) as 1 structure, in a simple running technique, using #1 or #2 absorbable monofilament suture material with a suture length to wound length ratio of 4 to 1.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Weill Medical College of Cornell University and New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USA. adilc@excite.com
authors.forename: Adil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ceydeli
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rucinski
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wise
mesh_terms: D034861:Abdominal Wall / Q000601:surgery*; D000071938:Fasciotomy; D006801:Humans; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D013536:Suture Techniques; D013537:Sutures