The diagnosis of undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia and its role in the recurrence of incisional ventral hernia

Introduction. According to statistics, 12,8 % of patients develop an incisional hernia within 2 years after laparotomy. At the same time, the probability of hernia recurrence after hernioplasty can reach 30 %. Recently, researchers have been actively studying the relationship between connective tissue diseases, such as undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia (UCTD), and the occurrence of hernias of the anterior abdominal wall. However, to date, no studies have been conducted that would establish a link between the phenotypic and morphological methods of diagnosing UCTD in patients with incisional ventral hernias (IVH). In addition, there is no information in the literature on how the severity of UCTD affects the risk of recurrence of incisional ventral hernias after various hernioplasty methods.
Materials and methods of research. The main group consisted of 91 patients with IVH. The control group consisted of 20 patients who underwent cholecystectomy and had a previous history of laparotomy surgery without herniation. All participants underwent a phenotypic assessment of the severity of UCTD using the Luzgina-Shkurupiya method. A morphometric study was performed in 40 patients with IVH and 20 patients from the control group.
Results. There were statistically significant differences in the number of pixels reflecting the ratio of collagen types I and III between the groups of patients with IVH and UCTD of varying severity (p<0.05). It was found that as the severity of UCTD increased, there was a significant increase in the number of IVH recurrences (p<0.05).
Conclusion. It was found that the probability of recurrence of IVH increases significantly with increasing severity of UCTD. The phenotypic method of assessing UCTD, proposed by Luzgina-Shkurupiy, corresponds to the data of morphological research and can be used as a screening method to assess the severity of UCTD in patients with IVH.

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