To understand the recent popularization of the TAR technique one needs to view it in the context of the historical advancement of complex abdominal wall reconstruc­tion. Arguably one of the most important breakthroughs in abdominal wall recon­structive techniques came about in the early twentieth century with the conceptual development of the relaxing incision and component separation. First described by Gibson in 1916 [1] as an external oblique relaxing incision, and then further modi­ed by Young [2] in the 1960s by expounding on the concept of the myofascial release. In the early 1990s, Ramirez etal. [3] introduced the practice of undermin­ing the plane between the external and internal oblique fascia to create additional abdominal wall laxity and coined the term “component separation”. This technique, now commonly described as an anterior component separation (ACS), allowed for the restoration of abdominal wall function through medialization and re­establishment of the midline fascia in patients with large hernias defects that could not otherwise be approximated. This technique served to help mitigate the difcult burden—born by patients and surgeons alike—of managing an open abdomen after major abdominal trauma or emergency laparotomy.