Surgical Techniques of the Abdominal Wall
Technical insights into reconstructive abdominal wall surgery, written for the surgeon: accesses, dissection planes, reconstructive techniques and selection criteria, with references to the literature.
The main pages of this site are written for patients: they explain abdominal wall defects, treatment choices and preparation for surgery in plain language. This section instead collects technical insights intended for those who operate: surgical anatomy, procedural steps, indications and limits of the main reconstructive techniques.
The common thread is modern reconstructive surgery of the midline: bringing the rectus muscles back to the centre, reinforcing the reconstruction with a mesh in the most favourable plane and, when the defect is wide, gaining tissue advancement with component separation techniques.
| Insight | Topic |
|---|---|
| The eTEP technique | Totally extraperitoneal laparoscopic access to the retromuscular space |
| The Rives-Stoppa technique | Retromuscular (sublay) repair of midline defects |
| TAR and component separation | Myofascial advancement for wide defects and loss of domain |
| Choosing the mesh placement plane | Onlay, sublay, preperitoneal, intraperitoneal: decision criteria |
| The EHS classification | Zones, width and clinical use of the European classification |
These contents complement specialist training and do not replace it: the choice of technique is still assessed on the individual patient, in the context of the facilities and the experience of the team.