Incidence of incisional hernias in patients operated on for aneurysm or occlusive disease.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of postoperative incisional hernias after elective open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair versus aortofemoral reconstruction. In this open prospective study, 281 patients who underwent elective open AAA or aortofemoral repair were included. All patients were evaluated by clinical examination 1 month after the operation, every 6 months for the next 5 years, and every year thereafter for the presence of an incisional hernia. Mean duration of follow-up was 63.7 months (range, 12-144 months). Seventeen patients (6.2%) were lost to follow-up. The development of a postoperative incisional hernia was recorded and analyzed with regard to the demographic data and the traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox regression analysis. The development of a postoperative incisional hernia after AAA surgical repair had an incidence of 16.2 per cent versus 7.4 per cent after aortofemoral reconstruction. Patients electively operated on for AAA have a 3.8-fold increase of developing a postoperative incisional hernia over patients operated on for peripheral occlusive disease (POD).