Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Artificial mesh is easily adhesive with the abdominal bowel and even lead to intestinal obstruction. This may bring great difficulty to re-operation of the recurrence tumor.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term clinical effect of artificial mesh on repairing abdominal wall defect after abdominal malignant tumor resection.
METHODS: Twenty-six abdominal wall defect patients resulted in abdominal malignant tumor resections were involved for retrospective analysis. Sixteen of them in the artificial mesh group were repaired by polypropylene mesh, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene mesh, and composite mesh. Others repaired by suturing subcutaneous tissue and skin without artificial meshes were taken as suture group. The occurrences of lateral ventral syndrome, bowel obstruction and re-operation of these two groups were analyzed.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: During the 2-10 years follow-up, none of the artificial mesh group got lateral ventral syndrome. On the contrary, all cases in the suture group got lateral ventral syndrome. Six cases (3 of polypropylene mesh, 1 of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene mesh, and 2 of composite mesh) of the former group got trouble with bowel obstruction and 7 cases (4 of polypropylene mesh, 1 of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene mesh, and 2 of composite mesh) underwent re-operation because of tumor recurrence. In the re-operations, meshes were greatly adhesive with the bowels, which brought trouble to entering abdomen. Four cases of the latter group underwent re-operation because of tumor recurrence, and the re-operation went on well for the adhesion was not serious. Using artificial mesh to repair the abdominal wall defect after abdominal malignant tumor resection can efficiently prevent the occurrence of lateral ventral syndrome. However, it also can lead to abdominal adhesions, which may bring trouble to re-operation when tumor reoccurs.