Role of postoperative abdominal binder on outcomes of open incisional hernia repair in a tertiary care institute

Incisional hernia repair is a common surgical procedure, which usually accounts for 15 to 18% of all surgeries.  Both minimally invasive or open surgical methods of hernia repair has been described. Understandably, minimally invasive approach causes less pain, lower surgical site occurrences and post-operative discomfort in comparison to the open surgical technique of incisional hernia repair. Moreover, these relatively common post-operative sequalae of open hernia repair can increase the post operative morbidity and prolong the hospital stay of the patients.

 Apart from prescribing routine postoperative care, some alternative methods are also practiced to minimize the chances of postoperative pain, surgical site occurrences and patient’s discomfort. One such practice is the application of elastic abdominal binders.  It’s beneficial effect after midline laparotomies is being reported by the various studies. Abdominal binders are proposed to reduce stress on wounds, abdominal muscle actions during mobilization and increase vascularity to the incision site and mitigate surgical site edema (seroma)

There is a paucity of literature highlighting the beneficial effects of elastic abdominal binder after open incisional hernia repair. Therefore, we are conducting this study to evaluate the role of abdominal binder in cases of open incisional hernia repair.