[Is there a reasonable role for prosthetic materials in the emergency treatment of hernias?].

On the basis of 54 reparations par prosthesis among our personal series of 264 strangled hernias, we tried to define the situations where prosthetic material should be used in emergency procedures. Use of a plug for the cure of crural hernias was found to be effective and usually a reasonable option. Inversely, large prostheses cannot be proposed except in a limited number of cases using an indirect approach in order to assure correct separation between the septic procedure for intestinal resection and abdominal wall repair.