title: Ventral hernia repair: outcomes change with long-term follow-up.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Ventral hernia repairs continue to have high recurrence rates. The surgical literature is lacking data assessing the time trend to hernia recurrence after ventral hernia repairs and whether over time the recurrence rates change with laparoscopic technique  compared to open repairs. Our aim was to carry out a long-term comparative analysis of ventral hernia repairs performed at our hospital over the last 10-y period to assess if outcomes change during the follow-up period.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a retrospective observational study analyzing  electronic medical records of all consecutive patients who had a ventral hernia repair from January 2001 to February 2010 at our hospital.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period, 436 ventral hernia repairs were performed: laparoscopic repairs (n=156; 36%), laparoscopic converted to open  (n=8; 2%), and open repairs (n=272; 62%). We analyzed the time distribution to hernia recurrence after surgery and found that 85% of recurrences after laparoscopic repairs and 77% of recurrences after open repairs occurred within 2 y of surgery. We did a Kaplan-Meier analysis for the subgroup  of patients for whom we had a minimum 4-y follow-up and found that there continued to be a low subsequent yearly recurrence rate for open repairs after the initial 2-y follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most hernia recurrences occur within 2 y after surgery for ventral hernias. There appears  to be a continued although low subsequent yearly rate of recurrence for open repairs.
authors: Department of Surgery, Guthrie-Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA, USA. singhalvik@gmail.com
authors: Vikas
authors: V
authors: Singhal
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Szeto
authors: Thomas J
authors: TJ
authors: VanderMeer
authors: Burt
authors: B
authors: Cagir
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006555:Hernia, Ventral / Q000601:surgery*; D059685:Herniorrhaphy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013526:Surgical Mesh; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome