Abstract Introduction: The incidence of wound dehiscence /burst abdomen varies from one center to another worldwide. While it is recorded to be 1-3 % in most Centers, some Centers in India recorded incidence of burst abdomen as high as 10-30% Aims and Objectives: To Study management and complications associated with the incisional hernia patients at tertiary health care center. Material and Methods: This study was carried out at R.C.S.M. Government Medical College and C.P.R. General Hospital, Kolhapur for a period of 2 years i.e. from April 2011 to March 2013. Total 50 cases were studied. The cases had a detailed clinical examination in view of position, size, shape of hernia, previous scar, contents of hernia, reducibility, size of defect. Tone of muscles, cough impulse and skin over swelling. In patients with obvious cause for incisional hernia were treated for the cause first for e.g. incisional hernia with BEP were treated with TURP first. Result: 14 patients had surgical site infection, 3 patients had respiratory tract infection and one patients had urinary tract infection in the post-operative period of previous surgery.12 percent of patients had a defect size of less than 3 cm, 78 percent patients had a defect size of 3-5 cm and 4 percent of patients with defect size>5 cm while defect size of 6% patients was clinically not appreciated. 39 (78%) of the patients Mesh repair was done and in 10 (20%) anatomical repair was done and in 1 (2%) patient by Laparoscopy repair. 4 patients had seroma formation and 3 patients had surgical site infection with 2 patients had respiratory tract infection. Conclusion: the study reveals post operative wound infection is the most common etiology for incisional hernia. Most incisional hernias require mesh repair. Most common complications after mesh repair are seroma formation and surgical site infection.

Keywords: Incisional hernia, Mesh repair, Seroma formation, Surgical site infection (SSI).