Applying the Chinese Wood Joinery Mortise-and-Tenon Principle to Repair Widening Surface Scars.

Abstract

We applied the classical Chinese wood joinery mortise-and-tenon principle to repair widening surface scars caused by incision tension. Along the outer margin of surface scars, the top half of the scar tissue was cut and removed. The authors designed serial tenon structures on the retained dermal surface of the scar and a series of corresponding mortise structures in the dermal tissue on the opposite side of the incision. Finally, the mortise and tenon structures were integrated and sutured, resulting in tensionless closure. Thirty-two surface scars were repaired with this method. The follow-up time ranged from 6 to 24 months. The incisions healed in the form of fine linear scars. No widening scars were observed in this series. The proposed mortise-and-tenon scar repair technique can effectively reduce incision tension and thus reduce scar formation at the incision site. The authors recommend this technique as an alternative effective method for revising widening surface scars.