A PROSPECTIVE STUDY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF INCISIONAL HERNIA

BACKGROUND Incisional hernia is a protrusion of abdominal viscera through the site of previous operation or traumatic wound of the abdominal wall. There are numerous methods of repair of abdominal incisional hernia. They are simple resuturing, shoe lace darn repair. Cattell’s and Maingot’s Kael repair, which are associated with recurrence. Since, the prosthetic graft has revolutionised the surgical field, the Prolene mesh is widely used to cover the defects in incisional hernia. This study is to determine wound complications and the length of hospital stay of inserting a wound drain during mesh repair compared with no wound drain. MATERIALS AND METHODS A sum of 30 patients with incisional hernia admitted in general surgical wards of Sivagangai Medical College. The clinical features symptomatology, investigations, operative findings, postoperative wound complications and length of hospital stay were analysed. Onlay Prolene mesh of size 15 x 15 cm is kept with Redivac drain in 15 patients and no drain in 15 patients. Parameters like wound seroma, wound infection, reoperation for wound healing complications and postoperative length stay. RESULTS From our comparative study, in a case of incisional hernia, during mesh repair, the usage of negative pressure Redivac suction drain helps in reducing wound infection rate, preventing the formation of seroma, reducing the number of secondary suturing, reducing the postoperative length of hospital stay. CONCLUSION Over the years, the advantages of the negative pressure therapy have been demonstrated as it improves healing times by increasing blood flow, extracting secreted fluid and maintaining the wound margins and protecting the wound from contamination.