Endoscopic rectus harvest: a simplified sheath-saving technique.

The potential benefits of harvesting the rectus abdominis muscle endoscopically are great. To date no simple, reliable method has been developed for harvest based on the inferior epigastric artery and transferred to the living patient. We have devised a simplified endoscopically assisted method of harvest on a cadaveric model that adds speed and the advantage of a grossly intact sheath to other published methods. It has been used successfully in a clinical situation. Two-portal access and triplanar dissection are the key points in this method.