Decrease in skin-closing tension intraoperatively with suture tension adjustment reel, balloon expansion, and...

The biomechanical and viscoelastic properties of the skin enable it to be significantly stretched within a relatively short period of time. This property, called mechanical creep, is exploited in various surgical maneuvers for intraoperative closure of large surgical defects. The recently introduced Miami Suture Tension Adjustment Reel (S.T.A.R.) device permits both the precise sutured attachment of a linear cycled load to approximate the edges of widened surgical defects, and the easy measurement of wound edge tension across the defects.

It was our purpose to compare the relative effects of linear load cycling with the S.T.A.R. device, spherical load cycling with balloon expander, and surgical undermining on the closing tension of surgical defects.

Surgical wounds were created on the flanks of six pigs and these defects were closed by various methods of repair. The combination of undermining and the S.T.A.R. device ws also evaluated.

The average total decreases in skin closing tension were: undermining, 17.8 +/- 0.5%; balloon, 28.5 +/- 1.6%; S.T.A.R. device, 36.6 +/- 4.8%.

Our data showed that all three techniques were effective in lowering the tension required to approximate surgically created defects, with the S.T.A.R. device proving to be most effective. Undermining and the S.T.A.R. device also worked synergistically to decrease skin-closing tension.