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| Umbilical Hernia in an Obese Patient |
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| Umbilical hernia showing as a soft tissue opacity on an erect abdomen X-ray film |
Obesity with BMI > 30 kg/m2 is one of the factor for surgical failure[1]
The patient’s BMI >30 kg/m2 and defects >2 cm have been reported as possible factors for surgical failure in a study by Venclauskas et al. Ninety-seven patients (Males:31 and Females:66) with umbilical hernia were examined in this study. The recurrence rate was higher when hernia size was >2 cm (9% for <2 cm vs 10.5% for >2 cm) and patient's BMI was >30 kg/m(2) (8.6% for < 30 vs 10.7% for >30).
Thus it is wise to counsel the patient for weight loss before an elective umbilical hernia surgery.
Laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair is better than open repair in Obese patients [2]
A comparative study by Colon et al. (2013) stated that laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair should be the preferred approach in obese patients. They found a significant increase in wound infection rate in the open mesh repair group when compared with the laparoscopic procedure (26% vs. 4%; p<0.05). They observed no hernia recurrence in the laparoscopic group, whereas the open group had 4% recurrence rate.References
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19124962/
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002961012004369
Keywords: Umbilical Hernia and Obesity, Umbilical Hernia, Mesh, Suture, Mesh Repair, Suture Repair, Obesity, BMI
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