Kraissl's lines

Kraissl's lines are a set of anatomical skin lines:

• differ from Langer's lines in that unlike Langer's lines, which are defined in term of collagen orientation, Kraissl's lines are are oriented perpendicular to the action of the underlying muscles
  • Kraissl's lines coincides with wrinkle lines, although not always, and tend to be perpendicular to the muscle action
    • Kraissl's lines are found by studying the direction of underlying muscle fiber
      • Kraissl transposed wrinkle lines over diagrams of the underlying musculature and showed that these lines are mostly perpendicular to the muscles
        • he noted that the orientation of attachments between the skin and muscle was largely perpendicular to the underlying muscle
        • collagen runs generally parallel to wrinkle lines and is laid down parallel to scars

Open Image in Modal

Reference:

• Kraissl CJ. The selection of appropriate lines for elective surgical incisions. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 1951;8(1):1-28.
• Borges AF. Relaxed skin tension lines (RSTL) versus other skin lines. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 1984;73(1):144-50.