The lateral paramedian: revisiting a forgotten incision.

Incisional hernia is a potential complication of all abdominal incisions and still remains a significant problem financially and medically. Presently, there is a lack of general consensus among surgeons in regard to the optimal treatment. The midline incision is the most common used abdominal incision and it carries a high incidence of incisional hernia (up to 15%). The paramedian incision was known to lead to a small incidence of incisional hernias. This discussion is meant to bring the paramedian incision back to the picture as a hope to decrease the incidence of incisional hernia.