The Oscar Ramirez Procedure, a Solution for Treating Incisional Hernias with Big Abdominal Wall Defect

Background: Incisional hernias are important complications of abdominal surgery. Normally they are followed by the growth of the hernia sac and an increase of the abdominal wall defect with loss of domain of the herniated organs.

Case report: We report a case of a 51 year old female, admitted in the 1^st Surgical Clinic of the County Emergency Clinical Hospital of Tîrgu Mureș with a large median reducible incisional hernia and a wall defect of 10/12 cm. The abdominoplasty was performed using the Oscar Ramirez technique, which consists of a longitudinal incision along the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle, at approximately 1-2 cm from the external edge of the rectus abdominis. This procedure allows the abdominal wall closure. This case is part of a lot of 4 patients who received this treatment using the aforementioned procedure in the past 2 months. Postoperative recovery was favorable, bowel movements were present on the second day after the surgery, the subcutaneous drains were shortened on the fifth day and removed on the sixth. There were no immediate postoperative complications or up to a month after the surgery. The patient was discharged on the seventh day.

Conclusions: This technique can be used alone in case of large abdominal wall defects, or prequeling an on-lay mesh procedure addressed to a weak abdominal wall, case in which the functional result is superior to a substitutional mesh.