No abstract

Watchful waiting appears to be a safe strategy in the treatment of incisional, umbilical and epigastric hernias.

In a standardized setting, agreement in choice of treatment strategy for patients with incisional hernias was very low among experienced surgeons. A standardization of surgical decision making is desirable to develop new interventions and improve clinical outcomes.

Hernia repair elicits a systemic inflammatory response characterized by an increase in CRP, IL-6, leukocytes, neutrophils, IL-1, IL-10, fibrinogen, and α1-antitrypsin and a decrease in lymphocytes and albumin. A higher inflammatory response was found after mesh repair compared with non-mesh repair and after open mesh repair compared with laparoscopic mesh repair.