Introducing the Proceed Ventral Patch as a new device in surgical management of umbilical and small ventral hernias: preliminary results.

Surgical treatment of umbilical and small ventral hernias ranges from a simple suture repair to the placement of large intra-abdominal or retromuscular meshes. Several articles report a lower incidence of recurrence after mesh repair, whether this is positioned onlay, retromuscular, or intraperitoneally. Often, a simple suture repair fails in the longterm, whereas a laparoscopic or retromomuscular approach seems too extensive for these rather small hernias. In between those two treatment options exists a go-between repair that carries the idea of posterior repair without being so aggressive in its approach. In this study, the authors examined a new device called the Proceed Ventral Patch (PVP) (Ethicon, Inc., Sommerville, NJ, USA). It is a self-expanding, partially absorbable, flexible laminate mesh device that allows an easy, quick and minimal invasive, tension-free, and standardized approach to umbilical hernia treatment. No data nor publication exist on this new device. Reported herein is our early and first experience with this novel technique.