Postoperative scars and cleavage lines

We elucidated the pattern of skin cleavage lines of the neck of Japanese cadavers and studied the scarring in 42 cases of radical neck dissection for the removal of metastatic nodules from the malignant tumors of the oral region, in the operation of which one incision was made parallel to, and another perpendicular to, the cleavage lines. From this study we came to the following conclusions: 1) The cleavage lines run parallel in ring-form around the neck, with the exception of the back and the lowermost part of the base of the neck. Seen from the side, the lines run horizontally across the neck. 2) Raised and widened scars were few at the site of the incision parallel to the cleavage lines but there were seen often at the site of the perpendicular incision. 3) There were no raised postoperative scars in the patients who had received radiotherapy prior to the time of observation.