Risk Factors for Postoperative Complications in Hernia Repair

Abstract

Background and objective Hernias of the abdominal wall were prevalent in people of all ages worldwide, with an overall prevalence of 1.7 percent. Recently, laparoscopic and Lichtenstein mesh repairs have become popular as they provide a rapid return to normal activities with low recurrence rates. There is a relatively high risk of complications following hernia repair, such as wound seroma/hematoma, urinary retention, and superficial incisional infection. As for complications that may develop after hernia repair, we discussed risk factors contributing to postoperative complications after hernia repair in this study. Methods This study was a retrospective descriptive study of all patients who underwent hernia repair. The cohort of patients data would be collected from patients using an interview-based questionnaire. The data obtained will be entered into a spreadsheet and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 package (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results In the current study, we collected data from 274 patients with hernia. The majority of participants were male (79.9%, n = 219), while (37.7%, n = 100) overweight, and (29.8%, n = 79) obese. Among the participants, (82.8%, n = 227) did not experience any complications, while (17.2%, n = 47) reported complications. The types of complications observed were as follows: seroma formation (2.9%, n = 8), wound infection (5.8%, n = 16), and mesh infection (1.8 %, n = 5). There were no significant associations between gender and the presence of complications. However, a significant association was found between BMI and complications (p < 0.001). Diabetes mellitus also showed a significant association with complications (p = 0.005), with a higher proportion of complications among participants with diabetes. Conclusion In the current study, we found a significant prevalence of postoperative complications with significant risk factors such as obesity and diabetic mellitus. Additional investigation is warranted to validate these correlations and investigate supplementary variables that could potentially contribute to postoperative problems in hernia surgery.

Keywords: hernia repair; mesh repair; open hernia repair; post-op complications; risk factors.

Figure 1. The prevalence of some comorbidities

DM, Diabetes Mellitus; COPD, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease