Open ventral hernia repair with a composite ventral patch - final results of a multicenter prospective study

BACKGROUND: This study assessed clinical outcomes, including safety and recurrence, from the two-year follow-up of patients who underwent open ventral primary hernia repair with the use of the Parietex™ Composite Ventral Patch (PCO-VP). METHODS: A prospective single-arm, multicenter study of 126 patients undergoing open ventral hernia repair for umbilical and epigastric hernias with the PCO-VP was performed. RESULTS: One hundred twenty-six subjects (110 with umbilical hernia and 16 with epigastric hernia) with a mean hernia diameter of 1.8 cm (0.4–4.0) were treated with PCO-VP. One hundred subjects completed the two-year study. Cumulative hernia recurrence was 3.0% (3/101; 95%CI: 0.0–6.3%) within 24 months. Median Numeric Rating Scale pain scores improved from 2 [0–10] at baseline to 0 [0–3] at 1 month (P < 0.001) and remained low at 24 months 0 [0–6] (P < 0.001). 99% (102/103) of the patients were satisfied with their repair at 24 months postoperative. CONCLUSIONS: The use of PCO-VP to repair primary umbilical and epigastric defects yielded a low recurrence rate, low postoperative and chronic pain, and high satisfaction ratings, confirming that PCO-VP is effective for small ventral hernia repair in the two-year term after implantation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered publically at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01848184 registered May 7, 2013).