title: Laparoscopic incisional hernia repair: a review of the literature.
abstract: Incisional hernia is a common long-term complication of abdominal surgery. Historically the open repair with or without mesh was the mainstay of treatment. However, many recently published laparoscopic repair studies have challenged surgeons to re-evaluate which technique provides the best short and long-term outcomes. A Medline search of all English-language literature was performed using the keywords 'incisional', 'ventral', 'hernia', 'laparoscopic', and 'open'. Further references were obtained by cross-referencing the bibliography in each paper. Current evidence suggests that the laparoscopic incisional hernia repair is the optimal surgical treatment. A laparoscopic repair appears to shorten hospital stay, decrease perioperative complication rates, and decrease recurrence rates. However, there is no randomized trial utilizing a standardized complication grading system making it difficult to draw a definitive conclusion as to which repair is best.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Lukerudmik@shaw.ca
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Rudmik
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schieman
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Debru
mesh_terms: D006555:Hernia, Ventral / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D016896:Treatment Outcome