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This book contains papers presented at the 5 th Suvretta meeting on Hernia repair sequelae. It defines these sequelae, to evaluate the absolute and relative risks they pose, and to discuss the methods of their prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

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Even the best hernia repair can result in postoperative difficulties for the patient caused by repair sequelae as for example pain, infertility, infection, adhesion and dislocation of the protheses. That can happen many years later and now, where the general principle of hernia repair is well understood all over the world, these sequelae are noticed more and more. To define them, to evaluate the absolute and relative risk of these sequelaes and to describe the ways of their prevention, diagnosis and treatment, the 5 th Suvretta meeting had focussed on this subject. We discussed if there´s a principle risk by technique, material or both. The results of these discussions and the future handling and evaluation of this problem was the aim of this meeting. Even the best method can be made better by optimization of its single components.

Even the best hernia repair can result in postoperative difficulties for the patient caused by repair sequelae such as pain, infertility, infection, adhesion and dislocation of the prostheses. This can happen many years later, and now that the general principle of hernia repair is broadly understood all over the world, these sequelae are being noticed more and more. The 5 th Suvretta meeting was held in order to define these sequelae, to evaluate the absolute and relative risks they pose, and to discuss the methods of their prevention, diagnosis and treatment. We discussed whether the principal risk was related to technique, material or both. This discussion and the future approach to and evaluation of this problem were the aims of the meeting, working on the premise that even the best method can be made better by optimizing its individual components.

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From the reviews: "Expert surgeons from Europe, America, and Asia discussed long-term problems and controversial issues in abdominal wall reconstruction studies and discussions from this meeting are published in this book. ... It is valuable not only to specialists in hernia surgery, but also to all surgeons and surgical trainees performing inguinal and ventral hernia repairs. ... This is an in-depth review of the contemporary data on potential complications of abdominal wall hernia repair. It is a fairly unique collection of contemporary studies in this field of surgery." (Evgeny V. Arshava, Doody´s Review Service, May, 2010)

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Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Volker Schumpelick, ist Direktor der Chirurgischen Klinik des Universitätsklinikums der RWTH Aachen.

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