Long-term outcomes of abdominal wall reconstruction. what are the real numbers?
BACKGROUND
Advances in the acute management of the severely injured and critically ill patients have had a significant impact in survival and have increased our exposure to complex repair of large abdominal wall defects. The purpose of this article was to review the long-term (5-year or greater) outcomes of reconstruction of abdominal wall defects and the different modalities and materials currently available in the management of this challenging clinical condition.


METHODS
A review of published literature.


RESULTS
Our review of literature, in English language from 1984 to May 2011, identified six studies. The minimum average follow-up of the studies examined was 63 months. The hernia recurrence rate ranged from 1.1 to 16% at 5 years. A 10-year cumulative recurrence rate of 63% has been reported for suture repair and a 32% for prosthetic repair in incisional hernia.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a need for long-term studies of complex abdominal wall reconstruction, using biologic prosthetics mesh.
Trauma Surgery Section, Department of Surgery, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar, rperaltamd@gmail.com.
Ruben
R
Peralta
Rifat
R
Latifi
D034861:Abdominal Wall / Q000601:surgery*; D058107:Abdominal Wound Closure Techniques; D006555:Hernia, Ventral / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D013526:Surgical Mesh; D013536:Suture Techniques; D016896:Treatment Outcome