Open intraperitoneal hernia repair for treatment of abdominal wall defects--early results by placement of a polypropylene-ePTFE-mesh

Background: Large incisional hernias are mainly repaired today by tension free implantations of prosthetic meshes using various placement methods. The advantages of the intraperitoneal open technique (IPOM) using a polypropylene mesh that is coated with ePTFE on the side facing the intestine, are described.

Results: 62 patients underwent an incisional hernia operation with the intraperitoneal positioning of a prosthetic mesh. The follow-up examinations after a range of 16.1 months showed a hernial recurrence rate of 6.4 %. A part of the resulting mesh infections (11.2 %) healed without surgical removal of the mesh. Clinical complications due to adhesion formation were not observed.

Conclusions: The tissue sparing intraabdominal positioning technique simplifies the necessary overlap using healthy tissue as a prerequisite for a sufficient hernia repair exploiting the intraabdominal pressure.