Abdominal pseudocyst complicating incisional hernia repair: our experience and literature review

Giant pseudocyst is a rare complication of incisional hernia repairs whose etiology and incidence remains unknown. We have reviewed all cases of abdominal incisional hernia repair in our abdominal wall unit since its creation 6 years ago. Pseudocyst formation was observed in seven cases out of 871 incisional hernia repair operations. Four of them underwent surgical exploration with excision of the mass. To the best of our knowledge, only 18 cases of giant pseudocyst have been described in the literature. From both our personal experience and the reported literature, we understand that abdominal pseudocyst is an extremely rare or underreported late complication of hernia repair surgery. The complete excision of the cyst and its fibrous wall is the definitive treatment of choice.