Endoscopic transversus abdominis release in the treatment of midline incisional hernias: a prospective single-center observational study on 100 patients.

BACKGROUND: For W2-3 incisional hernias of the midline, a component separation is often needed to achieve closure of the fascia during repair with a mesh. Posterior component separation has been initially performed via open surgical approach, but more recently interest in minimally invasive reconstruction has grown. The aim of this work is to describe the technical aspects of endoscopic hernia repair with posterior component separation and to assess its feasibility in midline incisional hernias, based on the analysis of the results.
METHODS: We prospectively evaluated and analyzed patients with midline incisional hernias who underwent endoscopic posterior component separation by transversus abdominis release (TAR).
RESULTS: A group of 100 patients was operated between April 2017 and September 2021. The median follow-up was 27 ± 13.5 months, mean age 59 ± 10.2 years, ASA 2.5 ± 0.7; 94% of patients had comorbidity. There were 7 (7%) complications observed in the early postoperative period-retromuscular hematoma (1), infection of the retromuscular space (4), and thrombophlebitis of superficial veins (2). In 4 (4%) patients, late complications were observed-persistent seroma (3) and chronic pain (1). There were no hernia recurrences in the follow-up period.
CONCLUSION: The use of TAR endoscopic separation can reduce the number of unfavorable surgical site events, compared to the published data on a similar open surgery, while maintaining a low recurrence rate.