Cosmetic and functional outcomes of excisional surgical wounds healed by secondary intention: A systematic review

Data regarding short-term and long-term cosmesis and functional outcomes of excisional surgical wounds healed by secondary intention healing (SIH) are limited.

To conduct a systematic review and assess the cosmetic and functional acceptability of SIH for acute excisional surgical wounds.

Full-text articles queried from PubMed and Embase databases between January 1964 and April 2024 with cosmetic outcome data of human subjects with acute surgical wounds healed by SIH were included. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were followed.

A total of 1655 surgical wounds, of which 1518 (91.7%) healed by SIH, from 35 studies, were included in this review. The most frequent indication for SIH was a defect resulting from excision of nonmelanoma skin cancer (keratinocyte carcinoma), which was identified in 1439 (86%) of patients. Common sites for SIH included the nose (23.3%), periocular region (15.46%), and forehead (13.5%). The majority of wounds on the forehead, medial canthus, lower eyelid, nasal ala, cheeks, lips, postauricular area, and feet resulted in good to excellent cosmetic results, whereas those on the scalp, nasal dorsum, nasal tip, nasal sidewall, and chin yielded less acceptable cosmetic results. Given the baseline variability in cosmesis of primarily closed wounds in some anatomic locations, however, these data suggest the need for future prospective studies.

SIH may produce an acceptable cosmetic and functional outcome for selected defects and may be of clinical benefit in the appropriate setting. This must be weighed against the potentially improved cosmesis and more rapid healing seen with primarily closed defects.