European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Incisional hernias are a very common problem encountered by a surgeon and has followed abdominal surgery like a shadow for more than a century now. Incisional hernia is a truly iatrogenic hernia. In this prospective study, all patients (50 cases) presenting to the opd of general surgery in Katuri medical college & hospital over a 2 year period, have been selected ensuring there was no obstructed or strangulated incisional hernias/ intra abdominal malignancies / patients with severe co-morbid conditions (severe cardio-pulmonary disease, uncontrolled ascites)/ pregnant women with incisional hernias/ recurrent incisional hernias. The aim was to  evaluate the outcome of anatomical and mesh repair of incisional hernia with reference to technical difficulty, convalescence, wound infection and recurrence. A majority of patients were in the age group of 31-40 years and was more common in females than males with a female to male ratio 7.2 : 2.8 It was found that 36% of patients had an onset of symptoms within one year of previous surgery, whereas, 22% of patients had an onset between 1-5 years,14% had onset between 5-10 years and 28% after 10 years. Meanwhile, 88% of patients had hernial defect size of less than 5 cm in diameter, 8% had a defect size in between 5-10 cm, however, only 4% had a defect size of more than 10 cm in diameter.The study had found 3 patients in the anatomical repair group and 11 patients in the mesh group had developed post operative complications; most common of which were: 1. Wound infection in the anatomical repair group (8%). 2. Seroma was seen in the mesh group (24%). 3. All the 25 cases in each group were followed up for a period of 1 year and no recurrence was noted.