Peritoneal Bridging in Laparoscopic Ventral Hernia Repair

Laparoscopic ventral hernia repair (VHR) is usually performed by reducing the contents in the hernia sac from the abdominal cavity and then covering the defect from the inside with a mesh, i.e. Intraperitoneal Onlay Mesh (IPOM). This means that the hernia sac is left in situ anterior to the mesh. This may, however, predispose for the development of fluid in the hernia sac, i.e. seroma. The risk of seroma development may be reduced if a the defect is closed before the mesh is applied. Closing the defect may, however, cause tension and pain from the abdominal wall. Instead of closing the defect, the part of the peritoneum constituting the hernia sac may be used for closing the defect. In this case, the peritoneum is dissected from the edges of the hernia sac and then used as a flap that is fixated to the edges of the hernia sac on the opposite side. In order to evaluate whether peritoneal bridging reduces the seroma development following ventral hernia repair, we are undertaking a double-blind randomized controlled trial comparing conventional closure of the hernia defect with peritoneal bridging. The goal is to randomize 50 patients undergoing laparoscopic ventral hernia to conventional closure or closure of the defect with peritoneal bridging. Clinical follow-up is performed one month and one year after surgery. At both occasions, the patient is requested to fill in the Ventral Hernia Pain Questionnaire (VHPQ) and an investigation is done in order to assess the presence of seromas, recurrences or other local complications. One year after surgery, computer tomography is performed. The main purpose of the computer tomography is to quantify the presence of seromas. The study is intended as phase 2 study with the aim of evaluating peritoneal bridging as an alternative to conventional defect closure. If the study shows that bridging does not lead to substantial seroma development, future studies with greater statistical power and other outcome measures will be underta