Objective To investigate the surgical treatment of mesh infection after lapa-roscopic inguinal hernia repair.

Methods The retrospective and descriptive study was conducted. The clinical data of 32 patients with mesh infection after laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair who were admitted to the Affiliated Beijing Chaoyang Hospital of Capital Medical University from January 2018 to December 2020 were collected. There were 30 males and 2 females, aged 59(range, 19-81)years. All patients underwent debridement. Observation indicators: (1) surgical and postopera-tive situations; (2) follow-up. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean±SD, and comparison between groups was conducted using the independent sample t test. Measurement data with skewed distribution were represented as M(range). Count data were described as absolute numbers or percentages, and comparison between was conducted using Fisher exact probability.

Results (1) Surgical and postoperative situations. All 32 patients underwent debridement success-fully, with the operation time and volume of intraoperative blood loss as 110(range, 45-220)minutes and 24(range, 5-200)mL. Of the 32 patients, there were 6 cases undergoing open debridement, 26 cases undergoing laparoscopic exploration with 12 cases clarified the cause of infection, in which 4 cases had intestinal fistula by mesh infection breaking through the peritoneum and invading the intestinal tract and underwent laparoscopic intestinal fistula repair, 3 cases had significant amount of residual medical glue, 3 cases had mesh wrinkling and curling, 2 cases underwent peritoneum suturing with black silk thread. There were 18 cases undergoing complete removal of infected mesh and 14 cases undergoing partial mesh removal. There were 18 cases undergoing removal of infected mesh by laparoscopic posterior approach and 14 cases undergoing removal of infected mesh by open anterior approach. Twenty-nine of the 32 patients had bacterial culture and drug allergy testing, including 24 cases with positive cultures, while 5 cases with negative cultures. The duration of hospital stay of the 32 patients was 27.0(range, 9.0-85.0)days. (2) Follow-up. All 32 patients were followed up for 37.9(range, 18.7-52.5)months. There were 5 cases and 2 cases with postoperative incision infection in the 18 patients undergoing complete removal of infected mesh and 14 cases undergoing partial mesh removal, respectively, showing no significant difference between them (P>0.05). There were 7 cases, 4 cases with seroma, recurrent sinus in the 18 patients undergoing complete removal of infected mesh and 5 cases, 6 cases in the 14 cases undergoing partial mesh removal, respectively, showing no significant difference between them (P>0.05). None of patient in the two groups had hematoma, recurrent inguinal hernia or chronic pain. The 7 patients with incision infec-tion recovered effectively after symptomatic treatment. The 12 patients with seroma received no special treatment. The 10 patients with recurrent sinus underwent debridement, in which 9 cases did not experience any further abdominal wall infections and 1 case underwent the third debride-ment.

Conclusion The management of mesh infection following laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair necessitates the expertise of hernia specialists to complete remove the infected mesh or partial remove the infected mesh based on the specific clinical scenario.