Ultrasonography as a Tool to Improve Preoperative Marking in Body Contour Surgery

BACKGROUND: Body contouring surgery and surgical drawings are usually performed based on the surgeon’s experience without considering the nature of the unique anatomical structures of each patient. Thus, we propose a more reliable surgical design approach that considers the anatomical structures of each patient. Ultrasonography is increasingly used in plastic surgery and helps plastic surgeons to highlight anatomical features representing results in their interventions by providing a better understanding of the patients’ unique structures. METHODS: This study presents a series of cases involving 100 recruited patients (36 men and 64 women) between 18 and 60 years of age. Five surgeons examined the patients and created a presurgical design based on palpation, which was validated later by a physician skilled in evaluating the anterior wall of the abdomen using ultrasonography. The concordance between the findings of the palpation and ultrasonography was assessed for each patient. RESULTS: The concordance rate for each structure in both evaluations was midline (49%) (P > 0.92), diastasis recti (15%), semilunar line (23%), upper edge of rectus abdominis muscles (12%), lower edge of pectoral muscles (16%), border of oblique muscle (13%), number of tendinous intersections (12%), shape of tendinous intersections (11%), serratus anterior muscle (15%), subcostal triangle (15%), and oblique triangle (26%) (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: All the structures evaluated by palpation in comparison with ultrasound show discordance, except the midline where agreement is evident, with a very good level of statistical significance.