Complex incisional hernias
After an abdominal operation, the tissues that comprise the abdominal wall may not heal correctly and this can result in an ‘incisional hernia’. All such hernias are complex given that patients will have had previous surgery and many may be elderly, obese or have significant co-mordities e.g. heart or lung disease.
As an ageing, often obese, population undergoes increasingly complicated operations, complex hernia units are being faced with increasingly challenging incisional hernias. A large number of such cases will have developed wound infections post-operatively, some sadly with MRSA, and this may have contributed to the hernia formation. Unfortunately this infection history places the patient at higher than usual risk of further infections.