Comparison of small intestinal submucosa and polypropylene mesh for abdominal wall defect repair

Abdominal wall defects are a common medical problem, and inadequate repair methods can lead to serious complications. Abdominal wall reconstruction using autologous tissue, or non-biological, biological, or composite patches is often performed to repair defective areas. In particular, composite patches containing both polymeric and biological materials have gained increasing attention due to their good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, it is still unclear whether the quality of repairs using composite patches is superior to that of a biological patch. Based on the limitations of previous studies, we compared small intestinal submucosa (SIS) patches with SIS + polypropylene mesh (PPM) patches for repairing abdominal wall defects in adult beagle dogs. Forty-five female dogs were subjected to surgical resection to produce abdominal wall defects. SIS or SIS + PPM was used as patch for the defects. Morphology, biomechanics, and histological evaluations were performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of such therapies. Our findings demonstrated that SIS had advantages over SIS + PPM considering biological activity and histocompatibility without increasing the risk of repair failure.