RESUMO
The preference of various tissues used for surgical repair of hernia depends largely on clinical experience and observations. It was suggested that the criteria of preference may be put on more stable basis by actual testing of the tensile properties of these tissues. Accordingly we started by a trial to test some specimens of abdominal wall layers using some textile testing instruments with standardization of the dimensions of specimens and conditions of the test. The preliminary results indicated that the fascia transversalis was superior in its tensile properties. Peritoneum was less variable in its characteristics. A trial to use the ball burst test was conducted but according to lack of standardization it was not possible to represent the results in a com prehensive form. However this last test should be subjected to a more extensive work in the future