Abstract
We report the case of a 41-year-old male who underwent repair of a recurrent midline abdominal incisional hernia with components separation. The hernia defect was repaired with a 30 cm × 30 cm underlay biological (Strattice) mesh used to partially bridge a small residual gap between the rectus muscles and reinforced with a 30 cm × 30 cm lightweight polypropylene onlay mesh (BARD™ soft mesh). The patient later developed a large persistent seroma that was excised 18 weeks later. On exploration of the previous hernia repair, it was noted that the onlay polypropylene mesh had fractured leaving a 3 cm by 2 cm defect, but the underlying biological mesh was intact preventing a recurrence of the hernia (see Fig. 1). The fractured mesh was repaired with an additional onlay 10 cm × 10 cm polypropylene mesh, the seroma was de-roofed, and the patient was later discharged. This case highlights the early mechanical failure of a lightweight polypropylene mesh; the precise mechanism of failure in this case is unclear and, however, may be related to high intra-abdominal pressures postoperatively.
References
Schmidbauer S, Ladurner R, Hallfeldt KK, Mussack T (2005) Heavy-weight versus low-weight polypropylene meshes for open sublay mesh repair of incisional hernia. Eur J Med Res 10(6):247–253
O’Dwyer PJ, Kingsnorth AN, Molloy RG, Small PK, Lammers B, Horeyseck G (2005) Randomized clinical trial assessing impact of a lightweight or heavyweight mesh on chronic pain after inguinal hernia repair. Br J Surg 92(2):166–170
Cobb WS, Burns JM, Kercher KW, Matthews BD, Norton H, Heniford BT (2005) Normal intra abdominal pressure in healthy adults. J Surg Res 129:231–235
Lerdsirisopon S, Frisella MM, Matthews BD, Deeken CR (2011) Biomechanical evaluation of potential damage to hernia repair materials due to fixation with helical titanium tacks. Surg Endosc 25:3890–3897
Robinson TN, Clarke JH, Schoen J, Walsh MD (2005) Major mesh-related complications following hernia repair. Surg Endosc 19(12):1556–1560
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lintin, L.A.D., Kingsnorth, A.N. Mechanical failure of a lightweight polypropylene mesh. Hernia 18, 131–133 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10029-012-0959-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10029-012-0959-5