[Treatment of large midline eventration with aponeurosis autograft and retromuscular prosthesis. Apropos of 40 case reports]. / Traitement de éventrations médianes volumineuses par autoplastie aponévrotique et prothèse rétromusculaire. A propos de 40 observations.

Forty patients presenting midline incisional hernias either recurring or larger than 10 cm in transversal diameter were treated using Teflon prosthesis. Implantation site was the retromuscular space following the J. Rives technique. There were no postoperative deaths. Nor have we observed any recurrence among the 40 patients for a period of 6 to 56 months. Three wound infections completely exposing the prosthesis were recorded. These infections healed and it was necessary in only one case to remove a portion to the prosthesis. The low percentage of pulmonary complications can be attributed to 1) an intensive preoperative respiratory therapy, 2) standardized surgical technique, 3) epidural anesthesia permitting early effective postoperative respiratory therapy.