# Clinical importance of incisional hernia in patients resected for colorectal liver metastases: quality of life and abdominal wall symptoms

## TL;DR

This study finds that incisional hernias after liver surgery do not significantly affect quality of life or abdominal wall symptoms in colorectal cancer patients.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the clinical relevance of radiologically detected incisional hernias after liver surgery.

## Key findings

- Radiologically detected incisional hernias have low clinical importance in terms of quality of life and abdominal wall symptoms.
- About half of patients experienced abdominal wall symptoms long after surgery, but these were not related to incisional hernias.

## Abstract

Incisional hernia (IH) after open liver surgery is a well-recognized complication. The clinical importance of IH detected on computed tomography in terms of objective abdominal wall discomfort and impairment of quality of life (QoL) is less well known.

Patients who underwent curative surgery for colorectal liver metastases between 2010 and 2015 at a single center and were alive in February 2017 were asked to complete a ventral hernia pain questionnaire and the EORTC QLQ-C30 QoL questionnaire.

A total of 105 patients (80%) completed the questionnaires. Forty-three patients (42%) developed IH. The majority (77%) of IHs were < 2.5 cm. Patients who had an IH before liver surgery developed a new IH to a greater extent (P = 0.001). There were no significant differences regarding abdominal wall symptoms and QoL between patients with and without IH. However, about half (48%) of all patients had abdominal wall symptoms after a median follow-up of 34 months.

Radiologically detected IH after open liver surgery has low clinical importance. About half of all patients who underwent liver surgery experienced abdominal wall symptoms a long after surgery, but these symptoms were not related to IH.