Hypertrophic Striae Distensae

Striae distensae and striae gravidarum are so common and cause so little complaint that they are more or less taken for granted and regarded as normal. Several factors have led to the belief that they are due to mechanical rupture of the elastic tissue framework of the skin or to its disorganization and thinning by increased tension: (1) their occurrence in association with rapid increase in body volume, whether due to obesity, growth, pregnancy, edema or tumor; (2) their direction, which is along the lines of cleavage of the skin and transverse to the line of greatest tension; (3) their occurrence in the areas in which the skin is delicate, and (4) their histologic structure. Certain exceptions must be explained, however, before one can accept this purely mechanical explanation for the appearance of these irregular linear areas of atrophy over the abdomen, buttocks and thighs, about the breasts and occasionally