[Late intestinal perforations after alloplastic repair of postoperative eventrations]

Late intestinal perforation is the most rare and the most serious complication following the repair of abdominal parietal defects with alloplastic material. The authors have gathered in 7 years 6 cases of perforations which occurred between 1 and 10 years after using nonabsorbable synthetic mesh prostheses made of polyester (4 cases) and polypropylene (2 cases) as parietal substitution materials. The perforations were discovered either by the appearance of complete enteric fistulas after exploration of circumscribed parietal suppurations (3 cases) or during surgery of suppurations without external fistulas. All cases involved perforations of the small intestine and in only one case there was also a perforation of the transverse colon. In 4 cases, where eventration relapse co-existed, the polyester prostheses were found partially or totally detached from the abdominal wall. The treatment of enteric perforation consisted of 5 segmental enterectomies (one of those a double one) followed by anastomoses and one enteroraphy. The colic perforation was excised and sutured. The mesh was totally removed in 5 cases and partially removed in 1 case (around the perforation). The postoperative evolution was simple in only 3 cases. In the other 3 cases anastomotic fistulas occurred and one of them (with reduced leakage) was treated by nonoperative management. It did not close spontaneously even after 12 months. The other 2 cases required multiple reinterventions (enterectomies, ileostomies, ileocoloanastomosis). One of these patients has been lost away after 200 days of hospitalization and multiple reinterventions. In all cases, the closure of the abdominal wall was simplificad by cutaneous suture only whereas consecutive relapsed eventrations remain to be treated by subsequent reinterventions.