Are Surgeons of the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative Following Guidelines in Umbilical and Epigastric Hernia Repair?

BACKGROUND: Umbilical and epigastric hernias are among the top three most common hernia surgeries performed in the USA with varied techniques. The European and Americas Hernia Societies (EAHS) recently published guidelines for repair of umbilical and epigastric hernias. We evaluated how closely the general surgeons of the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) follow these guidelines and to identify areas for possible improvement. METHOD: Data from patients undergoing elective and emergent umbilical or epigastric hernia repair from 2013 to 2021 were extracted from the ACHQC database. The procedures performed on eligible subjects were compared to those proposed by the EAHS guidelines. Data was reported as a percentage and a cutoff of 70% was selected to determine compliance. RESULTS: Based on these criteria, 11,088 patients were included and most of the recommendations, including appropriate preoperative antibiotic dosing (96.1% umbilical; 97.2% epigastric), permanent mesh selection (umbilical 97.8%; 96.1 epigastric), mesh fixation with suture (83.6% umbilical; 75.5% epigastric), use of mesh for open repair of hernias greater than 1 cm (83.6 umbilical; 85.7 epigastric), and primary defect closure during open (98.6% umbilical; 97.5% epigastric) and laparoscopic (99.6% umbilical; 100% epigastric) repair, were met. DISCUSSION: Surgeons of the ACHQC adhere to most of the published guidelines on umbilical and epigastric hernia repair. Further research is needed to reinforce or modify the existing recommendations. Standardization of surgical approach will facilitate additional research needed to improve procedural efficiency, while reducing negative outcomes and cost.

Safety and Efficacy of Laparoscopic Access in a Surgical Training Program.

Our study evaluated outcomes of laparoscopic access in a surgical residency program and identified variables associated with adverse outcomes. Following IRB approval, we reviewed prospectively collected data from consecutive laparoscopic surgeries from a single surgeon August 2008 to November 2011. Descriptive statistics were generated, and successful and unsuccessful access techniques were compared using the t test, Fisher exact test, and χ test of independence, with P<0.05 considered significant. Five hundred consecutive laparoscopic surgeries were evaluated; the average patient age was 47 years and 55% of patients were female. The most common procedures included laparoscopic cholecystectomy (29%), laparoscopic ventral hernia (15%), laparoscopic appendectomy (12%), laparoscopic colon/small bowel (11%), and laparoscopic inguinal hernia (10%). Successful laparoscopic access was obtained in 98% of patients. The most common access techniques were umbilical stalk technique (57%) and Veress followed by optical trocar technique (29%). The complication rate was 7% and included multiple access attempts in 3.4%, attending physician having to take over access in 1.6%, bleeding/solid organ injury in 0.8%, insufflating peritoneum in 0.6%, and bowel injury in 0.2%. There was a significant relationship between entry technique and failure rate. Open cutdown away from umbilicus had a higher failure rate than other techniques (P=0.0002). There was also a significant relationship between type of surgery and failure rate of technique, with laparoscopic ventral hernia and laparoscopic small bowel cases having the highest failure rate (P=0.005). We observed no difference in success rate based on age, sex, race, previous surgery, and resident training level (P>0.05). Laparoscopic access using appropriate techniques can be safely performed in a residency training program. Laparoscopic ventral hernia and small bowel procedures for obstruction can be difficult cases to obtain access, and surgeons should be able to use multiple strategies to obtain access.