Reconstruction option of abdominal wounds with large tissue defects

Abstract

Background: Abdominal wall defects result from trauma, abdominal wall tumors, necrotizing infections or complications of previous abdominal surgeries. Apart from cosmetics, abdominal wall defects have strong negative functional impact on the patients.Many different techniques exist for abdominal wall repair. Most problematic and troublesome are defects, where major part of abdominal wall had to be resected and tissue for transfer or reconstruction is absent. Case presentation. Authors of the article present operative technique, in which reconstruction of abdominal wall was managed by composite polypropylene mesh with absorbable collagen film, creation of granulation tissue with use of NPWT (negative pressure wound therapy), and subsequent split skin grafting.Three patients with massive abdominal wall defect were successfully managed and abdominal wall reconstruction was performed by mentioned technique. Functional and cosmetic effect is acceptable and patients have good postoperative quality of life. Conclusions: Patients with giant abdominal defects can benefit from described technique. It serves as the only option, with which abdominal wall is fully reconstructed without need for the secondary intervention.