Background: Laparoscopic repair is a new alternative approach to postoperation ventral hernia (POVH). Whether this procedure is accompanied with acceptable operation risk and recurrence rate is not yet established.
Methods: During 1996, we performed laparoscopic repair of POVH in 53 patients. Twenty-nine (55%) of these patients had a history of at least one failed hernia repair. The size of the abdominal wall defect varied from 4 x 5 cm to 15 x 20 cm (median, 13 x 9 cm). All operations were performed with the patient under general anesthesia. In all cases, the Gore-Tex(R) Dual Mesh (W. L. Gore & Associates, Flagstaff, AZ, USA) was used in sizes varying from 5 x 7 cm to 20 x 30 cm (median, 15 x 12 cm).
Results: No deaths occurred as a result of the operations. Intraoperative small bowel injury occurred in two patients (3.6%), which necessitated conversion to laparotomy and performance of small bowel resection in one case and simple suture in the other. Small bowel obstruction developed during the immediate postoperation period in two patients (3.6%). In one of these patients, laparoscopic lysis of adhesions had to be performed. Graft infection with subsequent graft removal occurred in one patient (1.8%), and abdominal wall hematoma developed in another patient (1.8%). Length of hospital stay varied from 2 to 8 days (median, 3.3 days). Follow-up period ranged from 10 to 22 months (median, 17 months). During this period, recurrence of hernia occurred only in one patient in which the mesh had been removed.
Conclusions: Laparoscopic repair of POVH is technically feasible. According to our experience, it is the preferred method for patients who have had an earlier failed open repair and patients in whom it is the first repair. Cases with a high likelihood for small bowel injury must be recognized and converted to routine open repair.