Annals of Medicine and Surgery

Introduction: The use of prosthetic patches of non-absorbable materials represents a valid tool in the treatment of abdominal wall and diaphragmatic defects in pediatric age. In recent years research has developed biological dermal scaffolds made from a sheet of acellular matrix that can provide the desired support and reduce the occurrence of complications from non-absorbable implant. We present our experience and a systematic review to evaluate the use of biologic prosthesis for abdominal wall closure in pediatric patients. Methods: The study from January 2009 to January 2015 involved 20 patients treated with PermacolTM implant. We observed postoperative complications only in patients treated for abdominal wall closure, which is the major indication for the use of PermacolTM. We conducted a systematic review and metaanalysis (according to PRISMA) on PubMed/Medline, Scopus and EMBASE regarding the use of biological prosthesis in pediatric population considering the incidence of complications as the primary outcome. Results: 3/20 patients experienced complications: 2 patients with skin necrosis healed conservatively and 1 of them developed laparocele. Thus only 1 patient with incisional hernia had significant surgery complication. In patients who were permanently implanted with PermacolTM it has not determined adverse reactions with optimal functional outcome. Conclusions: In accordance with the few data (case reports and case series) reported in literature about pediatric patients, our experience in different pathologies and applications has shown the effectiveness of PermacolTM, in particular for the non-occurrence of infections, that often affect the use of prosthesis. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IJS Publishing Group Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).