Laparoscopic Repair of Boundary Incisional Hernia in a Kidney Transplant Patient: A Safe Tacks-Fibrin Glue Combined Mesh Fixation Technique

Laparoscopic intraperitoneal mesh repair of a large incisional hernia in a kidney transplantation patient: A case report

A 73-year-old woman presented to our hospital because of painful bulging in the right lower abdomen, and developed a 17 × 12 cm incisional hernia after kidney transplantation using right oblique incision. Laparoscopic intraperitoneal onlay mesh (IPOM) repair was performed. Since a transplanted kidney is close to the abdominal wall defect, the space between the transplanted kidney and the abdominal wall was peeled off to secure enough space for the mesh to be place. After that the fascial defect was detected precisely, and the polypropylene-polyglycolic acid composite mesh was fixed with 3 cm overlapping of the hernia ring by non-absorbable tacks. The patient was discharged 9 days after surgery. In general, abdominal incisional hernias after kidney transplantation are relatively large with boundary defect of abdominal wall ensuing between the abdominal and allograft. However, laparoscopic IPOM repair of incisional hernia after kidney transplantation can be performed safely and effectively.

Integrity of dural closure after autologous platelet rich fibrin augmentation: an in vitro study

Background

Watertight closure of the dura mater is fundamental in neurosurgery. Besides the classical suturing techniques, a variety of biomaterials have been proposed as sealants. Platelet rich fibrin (PRF) is an autologous biomaterial which can readily be obtained through low-speed centrifugation of patient’s own blood. It is rich in fibrin, growth factors, leucocytes and cytokines and has shown adhesive properties while promoting the physiological wound healing process. In this study, we investigated the effect of applying PRF in reinforcing the watertight dura mater closure.

Methods

We created an in vitro testing device, where the watertight dura mater closure could be hydrostatically assessed. On 26 fresh harvested bovine dura maters, a standardised 20-mm incision was closed with a running suture, and the leak pressure was measured first without (primary leak pressure) and then with PRF augmentation (secondary leak pressure). The two groups of measurements have been statistically analysed with the Student’s paired t test.

Results

The “running suture only group” had a leak pressure of 10.5 ± 1.2 cmH2O (mean ± SD) while the “PRF-augmented group” had a leak pressure of 47.2 ± 2.6 cm H2O. This difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001; paired t test).

Conclusions

Autologous platelet rich fibrin augmentation reliably reinforced watertight closure of the dura mater to a > 4-fold increased leak pressure after failure of the initial standard running suture technique.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s00701-020-04254-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.