Long-Term Patient-Reported Outcomes after Robotic, Laparoscopic, and Open Primary Ventral Hernia Repair.

Authors

Usamah Ahmed, Hugin Reistrup, Anders Gram-Hanssen, Jacob Rosenberg, Jason Joe Baker

Published in

Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Sep 22, 2026. Epub Sep 22, 2026.

Abstract

Minimally invasive approaches are increasingly used for primary ventral hernia repair, but comparative patient-reported outcome evidence remains limited. We examined long-term patient-reported outcomes after robotic, laparoscopic, and open elective primary ventral hernia repair.
This nationwide survey- and register-based study included adults (≥18 years) undergoing elective mesh repair of primary (umbilical or epigastric) ventral hernias with defect widths <10 cm. Patient-reported outcomes were assessed using the Abdominal Hernia-Q capturing the prevalence of severe chronic pain, foreign body sensation, scar dissatisfaction, and patient-reported recurrence, as well as physical impact and appearance scores. Of 12,040 eligible patients, 9,552 responded (79%).
Severe chronic pain, foreign body sensation, and physical impact scores did not differ across approaches. Scar dissatisfaction was lower after laparoscopic repair than open repair (5.7% vs 10.2%; difference, -4.5%; 95% CI, -5.8 to -3.2; P <.001) and after robotic repair than open repair (4.2% vs 10.2%; difference, -6.0%; 95% CI, -8.2 to -3.8; P <.001). Patient-reported recurrence was higher after laparoscopic than open repair (11.4% vs 9.2%; difference, 2.2%; 95% CI, 0.6 to 3.7; P =.006). Appearance scores were slightly higher after laparoscopic than open repair (18.8 vs 18.5; mean difference, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.2 to 0.5; P <.001).
Long-term patient-reported outcomes were broadly comparable across approaches, but minimally invasive repair was associated with less scar dissatisfaction. Scar-related outcomes may inform approach selection when postoperative appearance is a patient priority.

PMID:
42770957
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 22 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.