Small Bowel Obstruction Following Robotic Transabdominal Preperitoneal Ventral Hernia Repair (rTAPP) Due to Barbed Suture
Kathleen C. Clement, MD; Keaton L. Altom, MD
Tripler Army Medical Center

Barbed suture is an increasingly popular type of suture used by surgeons across the world. It is an efficient suture that provides several benefits, including better distributed tensile strength, reduced surrounding inflammatory reaction and local tissue hypoxia, and less foreign body exposure. However, there have been a handful of cases of complications with barbed sutures over the past few decades.

This is the case of a patient who initially underwent an uncomplicated robotic transabdominal preperitoneal ventral hernia repair (rTAPP) and re-presented postoperative day two with a small bowel obstruction. This video shows the operative findings from the return to the operating room with the identification of a barbed suture that had become caught in the mesentery, causing kinking of the bowel.