Open incisional hernia repair at an academic tertiary care medical center.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the postoperative complication rates of a large consecutive series of patients who underwent open incisional ventral hernia repair.


METHODS
Retrospective medical record review of an accumulated database.


METHODS
University tertiary care medical center.


METHODS
All patients who underwent open incisional ventral hernia repair from March 1, 2003, through February 28, 2008.


METHODS
Open incisional ventral hernia repair.


METHODS
Postoperative complications, including hernia recurrences.


RESULTS
A total of 507 cases (465 patients; female to male ratio, 1.1:1) met our criteria; median follow-up was 40 months. In 23.5% of the cases, repair had been attempted previously, and 16.4% had previously undergone organ transplant. The postoperative complication rate was 38.1%. Hernias recurred in 18.9% of cases. Perioperative mortality was 1.0%. Patients undergoing transplant were more likely than those not undergoing transplant to have a hernia recurrence (16.3% vs 32.5%; P < .001) and were equally likely to have a postoperative complication (36.9% vs 44.6%; P = .19). Patients who underwent repair of a recurrent incisional hernia were as likely to have a hernia recurrence as those who underwent initial repair (21.0% vs 18.3%; P = .52) but more likely to have an overall complication (47.9% vs 35.1%; P = .01).


CONCLUSIONS
In this series of incisional hernia repairs at a tertiary care center, the overall recurrence rate of 18.9% is comparable to that of other published series. Ours is the largest published series of recurrent hernias that shows a recurrence rate comparable to that for initial repairs. This outcome may be the result of greater use of more complex repair techniques.
Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143-0104, USA.
Khashayar
K
Mohebali
David M
DM
Young
Scott L
SL
Hansen
Alexandra
A
Shawo
Christopher E
CE
Freise
David S
DS
Chang
John
J
Maa
Hobart W
HW
Harris
D005260:Female; D006555:Hernia, Ventral / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013526:Surgical Mesh