Comparison of collagen in the intact linea alba with that in midline abdominal scars: An electron microscopic study

✍ Scribed by Andrew Cohen; Jeremy Skepper; Harold Ellis

• Book ID: 102775776
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 593 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0897-3806
• DOI: 10.1002/ca.980050403

✦ Synopsis

Late" incisional hernias are those which appear more than 1 year after surgery. However, they are not associated with the same causal factors as "early" incisional hernias. In this study, scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to compare the collagen of 12 samples of intact linea alba with 8 samples of scar tissue, aged between 6 weeks and 10 years, taken from patients who had undergone previous midline abdominal incisions. No differences of collagen organization were observed using qualitative SEM. TEM, however, showed that intact tissue has collagen fibrils with larger mean diameters and differs from scar tissue in the shape of its fibril diameter distribution. Collagen fibrils from scar tissue in elderly subjects resembled collagen fibrils from intact tissue of young subjects. Neither TEM or SEM revealed any differences between scars of different maturity.