ABSTRACT
Inguinal hernia is a defect disease in the abdominal wall. Surgeons have tried various ways to repair the defect for more than 100 years. The traditional herniorrhaphy destroys the normal anatomical structure, and the recurrence rate is quite high. After that, surgeons began to repair the defects with prostheses, from the initial use of rough metal materials such as silver, tantalum, stainless steel, to nylon, fiberglass, silicone rubber and other non-metallic materials, and also from artificial synthetic polymer non-absorbable materials such as polypropylene, polyester, ePTFE, to synthetic absorbable materials such as polyglycolic acid and the acellular extracellular matrix derived from biological meshes. However, these prostheses still can not meet the diverse needs of patients. Thus, multifunctional composite prostheses consisting of two or more materials were born, and various types of composite prostheses, stem cell coating meshes, 3D meshes, microstructure meshes were developed. The repair method evolved from traditional hernia repair to tension-free hernia repair and laparoscopic hernia repair. Surgeons are dedicated to finding idealized meshes for the perfect repair of defects, while considering postoperative complications, patient's quality of life, long-term efficacy and other issues. In the face of a wide variety of repair materials, the choice of surgeons is blind, and there is no standard to determine which prostheses are suitable for patients. Therefore, we have combed the development of different types of prostheses, summarized the development process of hernia repair materials for the past 100 years, and put forward the prospects for future development of prostheses, in order to provide reference for the selection of prostheses.