CASE PRESENTATION: A 61-year old lady with previous peptic ulcer disease underwent a laparoscopic intraperitoneal placement of mesh for incisional hernia utilising a fish oil coated polypropylene mesh. The patient presented 3 months after the procedure complaining of dyspepsia and pain at the operative site. There was no discharge. The patient was managed conservatively. She presented 10 months post-operatively with progressively worsening symptoms and a hard palpable mass in the epigastrium. Abdominal laparoscopy revealed dense adhesive disease around the mesh with exudates. Adhesiolysis, mesh explantation and a partial gastrectomy was performed. Histopathological examination revealed a foreign body granuloma formation to the mesh.
CONCLUSION: In-vivo studies looking at intraperitoneal mesh placement with fish oil coatings including data on surgical outcomes such as fistula and adhesive characteristics are scarce in the literature. Further monitoring and studies are required to investigate the safety and efficacy profile of this mesh type in in-vivo models.
STUDY DESIGN: The study is a prospective observational study which included 122 patients who had symptomatic POP stage III and IV. AvaultaPlus™ (collagen coated, CC group) was compared to Perigee™ (non collagen coated, NC group). Introital ultrasound morphology, measure of neovascularization by color Doppler and clinical outcomes were assessed. Student t test was used for comparison of pre- and post-operation continuous data (p value of <0.05).
RESULTS: A total of 110 (CC group=50, NC group=60) women completed the study. A woman in the CC group developed ureteral injury. Both groups had comparable morphologic and clinical outcomes however, the onset of changes in mesh thickness and neovascularization occurred earlier in the NC group (1 month) compared to the CC group (6 months to 1 year).
CONCLUSION: CC group was comparable to the NC group in terms of erosion rate, ultrasound and clinical assessment. Collagen coating may induce delayed inflammatory response however may also delay tissue integration. The onset of changes in mesh thickness and neovascularization may give us an insight toward utilization of collagen coated mesh for host-tissue integration.
METHODS: Sixty-six (66) patients with unilateral uncomplicated inguinal hernia were randomized into 34 patients in the tacker and 32 patients in cyanoacrylate glue mesh fixation in TEP repair. The extent of surgical trauma was evaluated by measuring inflammatory markers of C-reactive protein, white blood cell count at 48 h, and ESR at 3 months postoperatively. Postoperative acute and chronic pain was assessed by recording the visual analogue scale scores and surgical complications were recorded over 3 months of the study period.
RESULTS: The median CRP and WBC levels at postoperative 48 h in both groups raised significantly from the baseline values (p 0.05). The median ESR level increased significantly at 3 months postoperatively from baseline in the glue mesh fixation group only (p 0.05). There was no significant difference for VAS scores at all timelines between the tacker and glue mesh fixation group (p > 0.05).
CONCLUSION: Cyanoacrylate glue mesh fixation technique as an alternative method to mechanical fixation in TEP repair is comparable to tacker and can be considered to be safe and feasible.
METHODS: Incidence of thigh pain was lower in 2008 compared to 2006 and 2007 (p < 0.0001). The percentage of patients requiring blood transfusions (p = 0.09), duration of IDC ≥ 7 days (p = 0.27), wound dehiscence and re-operation rate were lower in 2008 in contrast to 2006 and 2007 (p = 0.43). Only 209 patients (82.3%) were available for review at 1 year. There were two (1.0%) cases of recurrent vault prolapse.
RESULTS: The subjective and objective cure rates at 1 year after this mesh implant surgery in 2006, 2007 and 2008 were 92.1% and 92.1%; 97.0% and 92.4% and 100% and 97%, respectively. The mesh erosion rate was remarkably lower in 2008 as compared to 2007 and 2006 (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: This synthetic mesh-augmented implant surgery is effective and safe, and surgical outcome appears related to the learning curve of the surgeon.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: An auricular prosthesis, a complete denture, and anterior and posterior crowns were constructed using conventional methods and laser scanned to create computerized 3D meshes. The meshes were optimized independently by four computer-aided design software (Meshmixer, Meshlab, Blender, and SculptGL) to 100%, 90%, 75%, 50%, and 25% levels of original file size. Upon optimization, the following parameters were virtually evaluated and compared; mesh vertices, file size, mesh surface area (SA), mesh volume (V), interpoint discrepancies (geometric similarity based on virtual point overlapping), and spatial similarity (volumetric similarity based on shape overlapping). The influence of software and optimization on surface area and volume of each prosthesis was evaluated independently using multiple linear regression.
RESULTS: There were clear observable differences in vertices, file size, surface area, and volume. The choice of software significantly influenced the overall virtual parameters of auricular prosthesis [SA: F(4,15) = 12.93, R2 = 0.67, p < 0.001. V: F(4,15) = 9.33, R2 = 0.64, p < 0.001] and complete denture [SA: F(4,15) = 10.81, R2 = 0.67, p < 0.001. V: F(4,15) = 3.50, R2 = 0.34, p = 0.030] across optimization levels. Interpoint discrepancies were however limited to <0.1mm and volumetric similarity was >97%.
CONCLUSION: Open-source mesh optimization of smaller dental prostheses in this study produced minimal loss of geometric and volumetric details. SculptGL models were most influenced by the amount of optimization performed.
METHODS: This is a retrospective case series of 53 months follow-up of 123 consecutive patients who underwent UPHOLD-LITE system. Objective outcome measures the anatomical correction of prolapse with POP-Q ≤ Stage 1. Subjective outcome was patient's feedback to questions 2 and 3 of POPDI-6. Secondary outcome measures the quality of life, presence of lower urinary tract symptoms and complications. Quality of life is assessed by validated questionnaires on Urogenital Distress Inventory 6 (UDI-6), Incontinence Impact Questionnaire 7 (IIQ-7), Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory 6 (POPDI-6), and Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Function Questionnaire 12 (PISQ-12) at 1 and 3 years post-operatively.
RESULTS: Objective outcome at 1 and 3 years was at 96.7 % and 95.4 % respectively. The subjective cure was 95.1 % and 91.6 %. Five-year cumulative cure rate maintained at 87.2 %. Secondary outcomes observed improvement on UDI-6, IIQ-7, POPDI-6 and PISQ-12 postoperatively. Bladder outlet obstruction improved while de novo urodynamic stress incontinence (USI) increased slightly post surgically. Mesh erosion rate was 0.8 %.
CONCLUSION: The UPHOLD-LITE system demonstrated good medium term anatomical correction of apical and anterior prolapse, with good subjective cure and improved quality of life. Whilst complication rate was low, slight increase in de novo USI was observed.