Langer’s Lines

Abstract

Langer’s lines, Langer lines of skin tension, or sometimes called cleavage lines, are topological lines drawn on a map of the human body. They correspond to the natural orientation of collagen fibers in the dermis, and are generally parallel to the orientation of the underlying muscle fibers. Langer’s lines have relevance to forensic science and the development of surgical techniques.

The lines were first discovered in 1861 by Austrian anatomist Karl Langer (1819-1887) (Langer K. 1978) though he cited the surgeon Baron Dupuytren as being the first to recognise the phenomenon. Langer punctured numerous holes at short distances from each other into the skin of a cadaver with a tool that had a circular-shaped tip, similar to an ice pick. He noticed that the resultant punctures in the skin had ellipsoidal shapes. From this testing he observed patterns and was able to determine “line directions” by the longer axes of the ellipsoidal holes and lines (Wilhelmi BJ. Et al. 1999).

This chapter was originally published under the ISBN 978-3-540-01771-4 with the following book title Measuring the Skin. The content has not been changed.

Pierre Agache: deceased.