Medial incisional ventral hernia repair with Adhesix® autoadhesive mesh: descriptive study

Abstract

Nowadays, the gold standard for the surgical treatment of abdominal wall defects is the use of a mesh. There is an extensive variety of meshes, self-adhesive ones being among the most novel technologies. The literature on the self-adhesive mesh Adhesix® (Cousin Biotech Laboratory, 59117 Wervicq South, France) in medial incisional ventral hernia is scarce. We performed a retrospective descriptive study with prospective data collection from 125 patients who underwent prosthetic repair of medial incisional ventral hernia—M1–M5 classification according to European Hernia Society (EHS)—with self-adhesive mesh Adhesix® between 2013 and 2021. Follow-up was performed 1 month and yearly after the surgery. Postoperative complications and hernia recurrences were recorded. Epidemiological results were average BMI 30.5 kg/m2 (SD 5), highlighting that overweight (41.6%) and obesity type 1 (25.6%) were the most represented groups. 34 patients (27.2%) had already undergone a previous abdominal wall surgery. The epigastric–umbilical (M2–M3 EHS classification, 22.4%) and umbilical (M3 EHS classification, 20%) hernias were the predominant groups. The elective surgery technique was Rives or Rives–Stoppa with an associated supraaponeurotic mesh if the closure of the anterior aponeurosis of the rectus sheath was not surgically closed (13 patients). The most frequent postoperative complication was seroma (26.4%). The recurrence rate was 7.2%. The average follow-up length was 2.6 years (SD 1.6 years). According to the results of this study and the literature available, we consider that the self-adhesive mesh Adhesix® is an appropriate alternative mesh option for the repair of medial incisional ventral hernias.