Early outcomes following Duramesh™ implantation for abdominal wall closure: the Croydon experience.

INTRODUCTION: Mesh suture, or Duramesh™, is gaining traction for abdominal wall closure and ventral hernia repair. However, published data are limited to US case series and institutional registries. Use in UK and European cohorts remains undocumented. This is the first UK series describing indications and outcomes following Duramesh implantation. METHODS: This is a retrospective case series from a medium-sized tertiary abdominal wall unit in the UK. Institutional implant logs of consecutive patients from 1st Sep 2023 to 8th June 2025 were cross-examined to identify relevant patients. Chart review was performed and the indications and outcomes analysed using descriptive statistics. Subgroups were compared with chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U tests. RESULTS: In total, 73 patients were included in this series, with a median follow-up of 227 days. Indications for Duramesh implantation included ventral hernia repair (n = 63; 86%) and abdominal wall closure (n = 10; 14%). Regarding ventral hernias, the most common location was M3 (n = 47; 76%) and median defect size was 2 cm. Planar mesh was used concurrently in 22% (n = 16) of cases. The 90-day surgical site occurrence rate was 22%. There were no hernia occurrences or recurrences. Hernias repaired using Duramesh as the sole implant were smaller (p = 0.000001) than those repaired using both Duramesh and planar mesh. CONCLUSION: There is ongoing debate about whether to repair simple and small midline ventral hernias with planar mesh or suture. Our short-term outcomes suggest Duramesh is safe in this cohort and can be technically convenient in certain situations.