Medical talc and seroma formation following ventral hernia repair

Excerpt

In the current issue, Parameswaran and colleagues discuss the use of medical talc, 8 g in a slurry, for seromadesis. In their retrospective review of a prospectively collected database over a 5-month period, 21 consecutive patients were treated prophylactically with talc in the subcutaneous space. They compared this with outcomes in a previous group of 116 patients who had an aerosolized fibrin sealant sprayed in the subcutaneous space. Furthermore, all patients had an onlay repair with a lightweight polypropylene mesh and the drains were placed in the subcutaneous space for a period of 14 days or until drainage was <50 mL in 24 h. They report a 76 % seroma and a 43 % wound infection rate, and 33 % of patients required an intervention for their seroma. These numbers are significantly higher than any reported previously in the literature. Consequently, they terminated the study early. …