title: The tangled web of Langer's lines.
abstract: Langer's lines are often considered to be guides for elective surgical incisions. Interestingly, Karl Langer was not the first to describe the property of skin that leads to the lines he depicted, nor are these lines in common use today. Rather, it is common that relaxed skin tension lines provide a guide for cosmetically pleasing surgical results. Nevertheless, Langer did conduct extensive studies on human skin that remain as a scholarly body of work.
authors.affiliation: Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Orthopedic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
authors.forename: Stephen W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Carmichael
mesh_terms: D000715:Anatomy / Q000266:history*; D001317:Austria; D013502:General Surgery / Q000266:history*; D049672:History, 19th Century; D012867:Skin / Q000033:anatomy & histology
keywords: Langer's lines; elective surgical incisions; plastic surgery; relaxed skin tension lines