Perineal wound complications after vertical rectus abdominis myocutaneous flap and mesh closure following abdominoperineal surgery and pelvic exenteration of anal and rectal cancers: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis research was implemented to appraise the perineal wound complications (PWCs) after vertical rectus abdominis myocutaneous (VRAM) flap and mesh closure (MC) following abdominoperineal surgery (AS) and pelvic exenteration (PE) of anal and rectal cancers. Inclusive literature research till April 2023 was done and 2008 interconnected researches were revised. Of the 20 picked researches, enclosed 2972 AS and PE of anal and rectal cancers persons were in the utilized researchers' starting point, 1216 of them were utilizing VRAM flap, and 1756 were primary closure (PC). Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were utilized to appraise the consequence of VRAM flap in treating AS and PE of anal and rectal cancers by the dichotomous approach and a fixed or random model. VRAM flap had significantly lower PWCs (OR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.42–0.98, p < 0.001), and major PWCs (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.32–0.80, p = 0.004) compared to PC in AS and PE of anal and rectal cancers persons. However, VRAM flap and PC had no significant difference in minor PWCs (OR, 1; 95% CI, 0.54–1.85, p = 1.00) in AS and PE of anal and rectal cancer persons. VRAM flap had significantly lower PWCs, and major PWCs, however, no significant difference was found in minor PWCs compared to PC in AS and PE of anal and rectal cancers persons. However, caution needs to be taken when interacting with its values since there was a low sample size of most of the chosen research found for the comparisons in the meta-analysis.