Maternal Morbidity associated with Skin Incision Type at Cesarean Delivery in Obese Patients: A Systematic Review

<b>OBJECTIVE: </b>To describe the relationship between cesarean skin incision type and
postoperative wound complications in obese pregnant
patients.
<b>MATERIALS AND
METHODS: </b>MEDLINE
(PubMed, OVID), Embase, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, Cochrane
Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases were used for publication search.
Selection criteria consisted of articles studying
pregnant patients with BMI ≥30 kg/m² undergoing cesarean delivery
and assessing the effect of skin incision type on post-operative maternal
outcomes.
<b>RESULTS:</b> Ten publications
met criteria for a systematic review of a total of 2946 patients. The
transverse skin incision was associated with a
lower rate of wound complication compared
with the vertical skin incision. The pooled risk-ratio for wound complications was 0.47 (95% CI
0.37-0.58, p&lt;0.00001).

<b>CONCLUSION: </b>Transverse skin incision may be preferable to
vertical skin incision at cesarean delivery in pregnant patients with obesity as it may be
associated with a lower rate of wound complications.