Parastomal hernia repair: a five-year experience from a single centre in the UK

Parastomal hernias can affect significantly quality of life in patients who often had underwent major operations. The incidence and recurrence is still high although many techniques have been introduced to improve outcomes. Hence, there is still no agreement on what procedure has better results when it comes to repairing a parostomal hernia. Our aim is to compare outcomes of laparoscopic and open parastomal hernia repair in terms of recurrence, reoperations, post-operative complications and length of stay. Sixty-three parastomal hernia repairs were performed in a single Colorectal Centre over a period of 4 years. Eighteen procedures were performed laparoscopically and 45 open. All the 7 emergency procedures were approached open. Both the techniques showed to be safe with post-operative major complication rate (Clavien-Dindo III or above) of 9.52%. The laparoscopic group was found to have a shorter length of stay (p = 0.04) and earlier start of stoma function (p = 0.01), more uneventful recoveries (0.02) and less minor post-operative complications (Clavien-Dindo I or II-p = 0.01,) but similar recurrence rate (p = 0.41). In the open group, the placement of a mesh showed to reduce the rate of recurrence (p = 0.0001). However, this was not found in the laparoscopic approach. In conclusion, the laparoscopic approach showed do give less post-operative complications and a shorter length of stay, with no benefit in the recurrence rate. Considering the open technique, the use of a mesh seemed to reduce the rate of recurrence.