Pregnancy as a tissue expander in the repair of a massive ventral hernia

The use of tissue expanders has been described in numerous applications, including the closure of massive abdominal wall defects. The advantages of tissue expansion include providing adequate soft tissue for stable coverage of prosthetic material. In a subfascial plane, expanders can also expand muscle and fascia to allow total autologous repair of massive ventral hernias. These techniques for abdominal wall reconstruction are well established to cover viscera, to repair hernias, and to restore acceptable contour. The authors present the novel case of a woman with unstable skin graft coverage of a massive ventral hernia whose pregnancy was used as a surrogate intra-abdominal tissue expander to facilitate abdominal wall reconstruction.