A Prospective Observational Study of Ventral Hernia

Background Ventral hernias are commonly encountered problems in the field of general surgery. Incisional hernia is a common complication following abdominal surgery that requires reoperation. This study was conducted to understand the incidence of various types of ventral hernia in both sexes and various age groups, predisposing factors, clinical features, and complications. Methods This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Surgery, Dr. Hedgewar Hospital, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, on a total of 100 patients diagnosed with anterior abdominal wall hernia between September 2020 to February 2021. Data collection included thorough history taking and clinical examination along with relevant investigations. The data collected was entered in a proforma, tabulated, and analyzed with the IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 24.0 (Released 2016; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). Results Incisional hernia (43%) was the most common of all ventral hernias. Females were much more affected than males. Out of these types studied, epigastric hernia showed more incidence among males. The average age of presentation was 52 years. Obesity was the most common predisposing factor (34%) with female preponderance. Obese patients were also associated with a higher rate of postoperative complications like wound infection and seroma. In the cases of incisional hernia, 32.6% of the patients gave a history of previous surgery complicated by a wound infection. Incisional hernias were more common in lower midline incisions (34.9%) and after gynecological surgery (55.81%) like total abdominal hysterectomy, cesarean section, or tubal ligation. In the majority of the patients (62.8%), the incisional hernia occurred within three years of the previous surgery. Wound infection following ventral hernia repair occurred in 11% of the cases, wound dehiscence in 3%, and seroma in 2 % of the cases. Conclusions The most common ventral hernias in decreasing order of their frequency are incisional hernia, umbilical hernia, para-umbilical hernia, and epigastric hernia. Epigastric and umbilical hernias are more common in males whereas incisional hernia is more common in females. Obesity and constipation were found to be the major predisposing risk factors. Incisional hernia is more common in females after gynecological and obstetrics surgery. The lower midline segment is the most common site for developing an incisional hernia.