• Aleidis Caro-Tarragó, Carles Olona-Casas, Montserrat Olona-Cabases, and Vicente Vicente Guillén.
• General and Digestive Surgery Department, Parc Taulí University Hospital, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: dra5028@gmail.com.
• J. Am. Coll. Surg.. 2014 Sep 1;219(3):470-9.

BackgroundRecent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of using prophylactic meshes to achieve abdominal wall closure, decreasing the risk of incisional hernia. However, the effect of prophylactic mesh placement on a patient's quality of life has not yet been evaluated.Study DesignA controlled, prospective, randomized, and blind study was carried out. The patients in group A (mesh) were fitted with a polypropylene mesh to reinforce the standard abdominal wall closure. The patients in group B (nonmesh) were given a standard abdominal wall closure and were not fitted with the mesh. All patients were administered the 36-Item Short-Form generic health questionnaire during their preoperation visit and during their 1-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-up appointments. The scores of the questionnaires have been compared with those recorded when the questionnaire was administered before surgery.ResultsThe Kaplan-Meier survival curves show that the likelihood of incisional hernia at 12 months is 1.5% in mesh group compared with 35.9% in nonmesh group (p > 0.0001), which means that the differences are statistically significant. Patients with mesh placement had greater improvement in general health and bodily pain than patients in nonmesh group at 1-month and 6-month post operation. One year after operation, patients in the mesh group had statistically significant better quality of life than patients in the nonmesh group in the physical functioning, general health perceptions, vitality, social role functioning, mental health, physical component summary and mental component summary dimensions.ConclusionsFitting a prophylactic supra-aponeurotic mesh prevents incisional hernia.Copyright © 2014 American College of Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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