Minimally invasive ventral herniorrhaphy: an analysis of 6,266 published cases.
BACKGROUND
Over 300,000 ventral abdominal wall hernias are repaired each year in the United States; many of these operations are done with a minimally invasive approach. Despite these numbers, there are few controlled data that evaluate the minimally invasive method of ventral hernia repair.


METHODS
A review of over 6,000 published cases of minimally invasive ventral herniorrhaphy was performed in order to determine major outcome statistics for this procedure.


RESULTS
The mean follow-up period was 20 months. The operative mortality was 0.1%. The mean recurrence rate (weighted) was 2.7%, and the major complication rate (mostly bowel injury and infection) was 3%.


CONCLUSIONS
The results from published cases of minimally invasive ventral herniorrhaphy appear to be competitive with the historical results of open ventral herniorrhaphy. The major caveats of this review are that most of the data are (1) retrospective/uncontrolled and (2) obtained from specialized centers.
Carlson
M A
MA
Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA. macarlso@unmc.edu
Frantzides
C T
CT
Shostrom
V K
VK
Laguna
L E
LE
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006555:Hernia, Ventral / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures; D016896:Treatment Outcome