Repair of the midline fascial defect in abdominoplasty with long-acting barbed and smooth absorbable sutures.

[BACKGROUND] Traditionally, repair of the midline fascial defect has been performed with interrupted or running permanent sutures during abdominoplasty. Barbed suture devices, however, eliminate the need for knot tying and potentially are equally effective at maintaining the repair while allowing for faster deployment and elimination of a potential nidus for infection.

[OBJECTIVE] The authors report their experience with long-acting absorbable barbed and smooth sutures.

[METHODS] A retrospective chart review was conducted on 34 consecutive patients who underwent abdominoplasty, alone or in conjunction with other procedures, between August 2006 and December 2009. Seventeen patients had repair of the midline abdominal wall rectus diastasis performed with a smooth running absorbable polydioxanone suture, and 17 underwent repair with a barbed suture.

[RESULTS] All 34 patients were women; their mean age was 43.6 years, and their mean body mass index was 23.0 kg/m(2). Sixty-eight percent of the patients elected to undergo concurrent procedures. Patients were followed for a mean of 34 months (27 months barbed; 42 months smooth). No cases of recurrent diastasis were observed. Complications included minor seroma (two cases in the barbed suture group, one in the smooth group) and infected hematoma (one in the barbed suture group).

[CONCLUSIONS] Based on the data from this series of patients, long-acting absorbable barbed or smooth sutures appear to be equally effective in maintaining rectus diastasis repair. Barbed sutures therefore hold promise as a useful alternative to permanent sutures for the plication of the rectus fascia during abdominoplasty.