Implantation of synthetic mesh for the repair of abdominal wall ruptures in the ventral flank in cows: a review of 16 cases

In this paper the technique and long-term results for abdominal wall ruptur es in the ventral flank are described in 16 cows that underwent surgery bet ween January 1990 and October 1999. Most injuries were caused by a horn of another cow. In three cases the rupture was repaired longer than 6 weeks af ter traumatic injury The other defects were treated surgically 6.4 (0-25) d ays after they occurred. The muscle defects were closed layer by layer with simple continuous sutures (polyglactin 910, 6 metric) under general anesth esia in lateral recumbency and the sutured defect was reinforced with a syn thetic mesh (polyester or polyglactin 910) fixed to the outside of the exte rnal oblique abdominal muscle. The most frequent postoperative complication was subcutaneous seroma. It was treated successfully by incision and drain age. All patients were released 11.6 +/-5.5 (6-23) days after surgery. A te lephone survey 53 +/- 26 (7-106) months after surgery revealed that the pat ients had an average survival time of 30 (2-104) months, had born one to se ven calves without any complications and that only one cow had had an unsat isfactory milk yield. One cow had to be slaughtered 2 months after surgery because of a relapse. Synthetic mesh was used successfully to close the def ect in 15 animals. The functional as well as the cosmetic result of the des cribed operation was good to excellent.