Which Incision to Take

Abstract

One of the keys to success of any surgery is taking the right incision. The possibility of successfully accomplishing a difficult case is severely restricted if the incision is inappropriate. The use of laparoscopy as a diagnostic tool cannot be underestimated. Surgery is sometimes the ultimate diagnostic tool—when clinical assessment, laboratory investigations, and imaging are inconclusive, “opening and seeing” is necessary to find out what the exact pathology is. Even if a gynecologist cannot accomplish the surgery laparoscopically and has to convert the case into a laparotomy, one should not be embarrassed about it, since taking a transverse incision directly can turn out to be inadequate. Not only might the proposed surgery have to be deferred, or may require the incision to be converted into an inverted T incision, but it may also result in injuries due to inadequate exposure and excessive retraction.