Cosmetic selection of skin incision for resection of choledochal cyst in young female patients.
OBJECTIVE
Open surgery for choledochal cyst has a disadvantage of skin incision scar from operative wound, which can be a definite disadvantage especially in young female patients. This study focused on the cosmetic aspect of skin incision for resection of choledochal cyst in young female patients.


METHODS
During a 2-year study period, 11 adult female patients aged less than 40 years underwent primary resection of choledochal cyst by a single surgeon. The cosmetic effect of two types of skin incision was evaluated.


RESULTS
The patients underwent mini-laparotomy through either a right subcostal incision (n=8) or an upper midline incision (n=3). The mean length of skin incision was 10 cm for right subcostal incisions and 9 cm for upper midline incisions. It took approximately 1 hour to repair the operative wound meticulously in both groups. At the 6 month to 1 year follow-up, a slight bulge on the skin scar was observed in 3 (37.5%) patients of the right subcostal incision group and 1 (33.3%) patient of the upper midline incision group.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this preliminary study support the claim that cosmetic effect of the upper midline incision for CCD surgery appears to be non-inferior to that of the right subcostal incision if the incision is placed accurately and repaired very meticulously.
Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Shin
S
Hwang
Department of Plastic Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Jong-Woo
JW
Choi
Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Tae-Yong
TY
Ha
Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Gi-Won
GW
Song
Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Dong-Hwan
DH
Jung
Choledochal cyst; Cosmetics; Skin incision; Upper midline incision; Young female