title: Spigelian hernia: bibliographical study and presentation of a series of 28 patients.
abstract: Spigelian hernias are rare defects of the abdominal wall. Our aim is to analyse the bibliography and present a series of 28 patients. A Medline bibliographical study was performed between 1970 and 2000 with analysis of the number of cases, series, ratio of cases to year and type of journal. We also present a personal study and analyse epidemiological, diagnostic, and treatment factors. There are 159 articles, 479 cases, and 19 series of more than five patients published in 85 journals (42.3% medical). Our diagnosis was preoperative in 75%, and programmed surgery was 3.6 times more common than emergency surgery. We found a significant relationship between hospital stay and type of surgery (P < 0.02) and surgical technique used (P < 0.001). We found that spigelian hernias have a multidisciplinary interest; they are given almost equal treatment in medical and surgical journals; preoperative diagnosis can be established in 75% of cases; and the best results are offered by the extraperitoneal laparoscopic approach.
authors.affiliation: Abdominal Wall Unit, Department of General Surgery, J Ma Morales Meseguer Hospital, Murcia, Spain. amorenoe@worldonline.es
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moreno-Egea
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Girela
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Aguayo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Canteras
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006555:Hernia, Ventral / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data