HEDI: First-Time Clinical Application and Results of a Biomechanical Evaluation and Visualisation Tool for Incisional Hernia Repair
This addresses the issue of hernia recurrence and pain for patients undergoing surgical repair, representing a novel clinical application rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackled the problem of incisional hernia recurrence by developing HEDI, a biomechanical evaluation tool using CT with Valsalva maneuver, and reported that in a clinical application with 31 patients, all remained pain-free with no recurrence after three years.
Abdominal wall defects often lead to pain, discomfort, and recurrence of incisional hernias, resulting in significant morbidity and repeated surgical repairs worldwide. Mesh repair for large hernias is usually based on the defect area with a fixed overlap, neglecting biomechanical factors such as muscle activation, intra-abdominal pressure, tissue elasticity, and abdominal wall distension. To address this issue, we present a biomechanical approach to incisional hernia repair that takes into account the unstable abdominal wall. Additionally, we introduce HEDI, a tool that uses computed tomography with Valsalva maneuver to automatically detect and assess hernia size, volume, and abdominal wall instability. Our first clinical application of HEDI in the preoperative evaluation of 31 patients shows significantly improved success rates compared to reported rates, with all patients remaining pain-free and experiencing no hernia recurrence after three years of follow-up.