Risk of complications from enterotomy or unplanned bowel resection during elective hernia repair

Abstract

Hypothesis: Enterotomy or unplanned bowel resection (EBR) may occur during elective incisional hernia repair (IHR) and significantly affects surgical outcomes and hospital resource use. Design: Retrospective review of patients undergoing IHR between January 1998 and December 2002. Setting: Sixteen tertiary care Veterans Affairs medical centers. Patients: A total of 1124 elective incisional hernia repairs identified in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data set. Intervention: Elective IHR. Main Outcome Measures: Thirty-day postoperative complication rate, return to operating room, length of stay, and operative time. Results: Of the 1124 elective procedures, 74.1% were primary IHR, 13.3% were recurrent prior mesh IHR, and 12.6% were recurrent prior suture. Overall, 7.3% had an EBR. The incidence of EBR was increased in patients with prior repair: 5.3% for primary repair, 5.7% for recurrent prior suture, and 20.3% for prior mesh repair (P