High agreement between the Danish Ventral Hernia Database and hospital files.

INTRODUCTION Ventral hernia repairs are common surgical procedures and quality monitoring with a high validity is mandatory. The aim of the present study was to validate the data quality of the Danish Ventral Hernia Database (DVHD). MATERIAL AND METHODS All ventral hernia repairs performed in the Region of Zealand and registered in the DVHD between 1 October 2010 and 1 October 2011 were included. Eleven clinically relevant surgical variables in the DVHD were compared for agreement with data in hospital files. RESULTS The Region of Zealand cohort included 410 ventral hernia repairs corresponding to 13.8% of the repairs registered in the DVHD in Denmark during the inclusion period. There was 89-99% agreement between data in the DVHD and hospital files (κ = 0.75-0.99). CONCLUSION The present study based on a regional cohort suggests that the DVHD can be used as a reliable tool to monitor clinical quality following ventral hernia repair.