A patient-centered appraisal of outcomes following abdominal wall reconstruction: A systematic review of the current literature

BACKGROUND: Published assessment tools have attempted to investigate patient-centered outcomes after abdominal wall defect repairs, including quality-of-life measures, functional outcomes, pain assessment, and overall satisfaction scores; however, health-related quality of life following hernia repair remains unclear. METHODS: The MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane databases were queried and 880 articles were identified. Of these, 22 met inclusion/exclusion criteria. Analysis included health-related quality-of-life metrics focusing on quality of life, pain, physical function, overall satisfaction with surgery, impact of component separation, use of synthetic or biologic mesh, and emotional sequelae of an abdominal wall defect and repair. RESULTS: Twenty-two studies were reviewed; the mean study size was 117.7 patients (range, 14 to 402 patients). Mean and median ventral hernia defect sizes were 104.5 cm² and 71.5 cm², respectively. All studies reported open repairs using synthetic mesh. The Short Form-36 was used most often (11 of 22) in comparison to other assessment methods. Patients had global improvement in quality of life, functionality, impact on social function, and patient satisfaction. Hernia recurrence was found to have a major negative impact on quality of life. Midline repair improved overall pain and abdominal wall functionality in both presurgical patients and those with hernia recurrence. Component separation techniques appear to have a positive impact on global health-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Adopting an abdominal wall procedure-specific quality-of-life assessment tool as the standard is strongly recommended to gain a comprehensive understanding of abdominal wall defects and repairs. The available literature in open abdominal wall repair suggests an improved quality of life.