UNDERSTANDING THE REOCCURRENCE OF VENTRAL INCISIONAL HERNIA BY COMPUTATION

Abstract

In humans and in other vertebrates such as mammals, the "abdomen" constitutes the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis. The abdomen comprises of the digestive, the reproductive, and the excretory organs. The abdominal wall protects the internal organs of the abdomen from damage. The abdominal wall consists of 4 different layers, namely the skin, muscle, subcutaneous fat, and peritoneum. In some humans, the muscle layer loses its strength post surgical operation. This loss of strength creates an opening for abdominal tissues to pass through. A ventral incisional hernia happens when tissue bulges through this opening on the muscle layer of the abdomen. Ventral incisional hernia is very common with an incidence of 3-20.6% of the repaired hernia population post-surgical operation. Over many years, numerous attempts were tried to prevent incisional hernia recurrence including different surgical procedures, with or without mesh repairs. Some of these procedures includes the open surgery and the laparoscopic repairs. In these types of repairs, a mesh may or may not be employed to reinforce the weak spot. The problem with these types of repairs is that the mesh and suture materials are usually displaced from their initial configuration, after a period. This leads to the reoccurrence of Ventral Hernia. As the patient begins to perform daily activities such as breathing forcefully, and lifting heavy loads, there is a high chance that the surgical mesh and suture will be stressed. This stress will cause the suture to tear. Hence, leading to the displacement of the surgical mesh. In this thesis, a finite element analysis tool is used to show that stress is the cause of reoccurrence of ventral incisional hernia.