Parietal reinforcement prostheses: an original intraperitoneal experimental study

Summary The use of prosthetic materials is widely accepted for incisional and complex hernias, but the type of prosthesis in the abdominal wall still arouses acute controversy. We report an original experimental protocol testing three material placed intraperitoneally in the rat: a polyester mesh, a compound prosthesis (juxtaposition of a polyester mesh and a mesh of polyglactin 910) and a composite prosthesis (where fibers of polyester and polyglactin 910 were woven in the same mesh). There were two main criteria for assessment: the biologic tolerance to the material on the one hand, characterized histologically by the ratio of the surface of fibrosis to the surface of the inflammatory granuloma in contact with the material, and the nature of the adhesions between prosthesis and abdominal wall and the intraperitoneal viscera on the other. Statistical analysis of the results led to a preference for the homogeneous polyester prosthesis, compared with compound and composite prostheses (polyester and polyglactin 910) and to abandonment of the intraperitoneal site for insertion of such materials.