Ventral hernia repair in a potentially septic milieu

Repair of the abdominal wall is the last stage of abdominal surgery; pariet complications, particularly infection, can have serious impact on operative results. While abdominal wound infections are not universally preventable, they are often predictable; the aphorism of Jean Rives (Stoppa, 1999 [1]) summarizes this sequence: "Infection is the mother of postoperative incisional hernia and infection of the incisional hernia repair is the grand-daughter". Repair of the abdominal wall in a potentially septic milieu requires the solution of an equation involving four variables: mechanism of sepsis, its severity, the surgical approach, and choice of prosthetic material. These interdependent variables potentiate each other, requiring adaptations of surgical strategy that cannot be absolutely determined pre-operatively, even with collegial consultation.