Is prophylactic mesh closure effective to decrease the incidence of incisional hernia after laparotomy in colorectal surgery?

BACKGROUND

few studies have studied prophylactic mesh closure after laparotomy for colorectal surgery.

METHODS

a retrospective cohort study was performed to compare patients with and without prophylactic mesh closure after open colorectal surgery.

RESULTS

309 patients were included from January 2014 to December 2016. Prophylactic mesh closure was performed in 98 patients (31.7%). After a mean follow-up of 21.7 months, incisional hernia was developed in 9 and 54 patients in the group with and without mesh respectively (9.2% vs. 25.7%, OR = 0.3, p = 0.001). In the multivariate Cox model prophylactic mesh closure was associated with a protective effect on incisional hernia development with a Hazard Ratio of 0.46 (p = 0.033). Surgical site infection was more frequent in the mesh group (19.4% vs. 9.5%, OR = 2.3, p = 0.015).

CONCLUSIONS

prophylactic mesh closure is effective to decrease the incidence of incisional hernia after colorectal surgery.