Trocar Site Hernia After Gastric Bypass.

BACKGROUND: The 5.2% rate of trocar site incisional hernia (TSIH) reported appears low in view of the proportion of TSIH repairs being performed. Detecting TSIH by clinical examination may be difficult in the obese. The correlation between clinical examination and a novel radiological examination for the detection of TSIH in obese patients was studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-six patients subjected to laparoscopic gastric bypass in 2010 underwent clinical and radiological examination by three independent assessors for each method, after a mean follow-up time of 33 months. The computed tomography was in the prone position upon a ring. RESULTS: At clinical examination, a TSIH was regarded to be present in six out of 26 patients and at CT scan in four. The Fleiss' Kappa for multiple raters was 0.40 (p = 0.184) with clinical examination and 1 (p <0.05) with CT scan. With CT scan, herniation was diagnosed in three of 26 umbilical trocar sites that had been closed at the index operation, and in one of the 130 other trocar sites that had not been closed. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical examination is not reliable when detecting TSIH in the obese. A CT scan in the prone position was extremely reliable and seems to have the potential of becoming the standard method for detecting TSIH in obese patients.

Detecting Incisional Hernia at Clinical and Radiological Examination.

PURPOSE: In clinical studies, incisional hernia is usually diagnosed by clinical examination. No other modality has been proven an aid in the diagnosis. The aim was to investigate the correlation between findings at clinical examination and at computed tomography when detecting incisional hernia after midline incisions. METHODS: Patients underwent clinical examination by three surgeons. Computed tomography was performed in both the supine position and in the prone position and was examined by three radiologists. The correlation between investigators and methods were estimated by calculating the Fleiss Kappa values. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients were assessed. For the clinical examination, the Kappa was 0.81. For computed tomography with the patient in the supine position, the Kappa was 0.94 and in the prone position it was 0.89. The Kappa for clinical examination and computed tomography combined was 0.80. CONCLUSIONS: At clinical examination, incisional hernia can be defined as any detectable defect in the abdominal wall with intra-abdominal contents protruding beyond the aponeurosis. The same definition can be used at computed tomography with the addition that any visible hernia sac is also regarded an incisional hernia. With this definition, there is very good agreement between investigators at clinical investigation and at computed tomography in the prone or in the supine position. The highest agreement among investigators is achieved with computed tomography in the supine position. In clinical studies, clinical examination seems adequate for diagnosing herniation but in overweight patients a CT-scan may be a further aid.