Tropical Medicine & Surgery

Abstract

Ten-Year Personal Experience of Using Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)Mesh for Inguinal Hernia Repair

Ravindranath R Tongaonkar, David L Sanders and Andrew N Kingsnorth

Introduction: An innovative frugal technology that has recently been reported with positive short-term clinical outcomes is the use of sterilised mosquito net as an alternative to commercial hernia meshes. However, long-term clinical data supporting the use of this mesh is lacking. Methods: A ten year retrospective analysis of consecutive patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair using Low Density PolyEthylene (LDPE) mesh with 12-18 months follow up. Results: During the study period 713 inguinal hernia repairs were performed using low cost polyethylene mesh in 651 patients. Thirty-two patients were lost to follow up. There were six superficial surgical site infections (0.9%), one seroma (0.1%), two patients who experienced chronic pain (0.3%), and two hematomas (0.3%). There were no recurrences or cases of mesh rejection. Discussion: The results of this retrospective study confirm the long-term safety and effectiveness of the use of LDPE mosquito net mesh for inguinal hernioplasty.