Congenital abdominal wall defects management of 50 cases

ABSTRACT

The optimal method for operative management of congenital abdominal wall defects remains controversial. There is wide variation in opinions for the different methods that have been presented in the literature at different times over the last three decades. This work presents the management of 50 cases of abdominal wall defects using mainly the Schuster technique of staged repair with a prosthetic material. There were 10 patients with hernia of the umbilical cord that were managed by primary closure of the defect giving excellent results. Thirty four patients with examphalos were included, thirty of them were managed by staged repair using the Schuster technique, three were managed by external silo reduction and one by conservative treatment. The results were very good with only three deaths. There were four patients with gastroschisis that were managed by primary closure of the defect, however the results were poor yielding three mortalities. There were two cases of vesicointestinal fissure, one was managed by staged repair and the second managed conservatively owing to the bad general condition of the patient