Restoring abdominal wall integrity in contaminated tissue-deficient wounds using autologous fascia grafts.

Necrotizing abdominal wall infections, enteric fistulae, or exposed prosthetic material after ventral hernia repair often results in a loss of abdominal wall integrity. Further surgical reconstruction with prosthetic material is usually contraindicated in the contaminated wound because of the high infection rate necessitating prosthetic removal and further abdominal wall debridement. Consequently, for the past 9 years, we have been using free grafts of autologous fascia lata to replace deficient abdominal wall fascia and muscle in situations where prosthetic material is contraindicated and local tissue rearrangement (i.