Coimbatore: An imported mesh has been deployed by surgery for treatment of a 42-year old man with jaundice and recovering hepatitis superadded with complicated umbilican hernia, by a city hospital, claimed to be the fourth in the country and first in the city.
The Ventralex ST mesh has 2 layers – inner absorbable layer made of seprafilm (adhesion barrier) and an outer layer of prolene. The mesh has a circle of firm shape which when inserted into the abdomen opens up and covers the hernia defect by at least five cm all around, thus minimizing the recurrence rate, a release from hospital chief, Dr John Thanukumar, said here today.
This mesh expands to its fullest extent eight cm once it is deployed through a small incision of 1. 5 to 2 cm, with several advantages, as it can also be used by open surgery by a small incision of 1. 5 to 2 cm incision (similar to laparoscopic surgery) causing minimal discomfort to patient.
Anesthesia can be local or regional where the patient is awake during surgery and for this reason, it is used in high risk patients, even can be used for those who prefer laparoscopy, he said. The mesh is fixed in place by its circular inherent shape and by inexpensive sutures and the cost of expensive staplers, general anesthesia (with its attendant risks) and laparoscopy are avoided , he said adding that this is used in a middle aged high risk patient using regional anesthesia and the duration of hospital stay was one or two days.
The Bard company, which imports the mesh from USA, claimed that this operation has only been done once in Vellore, Nagpur and Chennai and this hospital. According to Dr Pravin John, the mesh can be inserted by a small incision of 2 cm around the umbilicus and has the same principles as the inlay mesh used for laparoscopy without all the disadvantages of laparoscopy.
