Patient, surgeon outcomes reporting app helps predict success of ventral hernia repair

Editor's Note

Researchers have developed an online app that patients and surgeons can use to guide preoperative planning and provide predictive data for how a patient’s ventral hernia repair will turn out.

The basis of the app is a tool named the “Outcomes Reporting App for CLinical and Patient Engagement” (ORACLE).

The researchers developed ORACLE by studying 10,690 ventral hernia repair cases in the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative database.

The five surgical outcomes ORACLE provides predictive data on are:

• risk of surgical site infection within 30 days of surgery
• 30-day risk of a recurrent ventral hernia requiring additional surgery
• 30-day risk of hospital readmission
• 1-year risk of hernia recurrence
• length of hospital stay.

The tool allows patients to review their risks by seeing side-by-side how their postoperative outcomes can change based on their ability to lose weight, quit smoking, and make other behavior modifications.

The objective of the tool is to have patients take responsibility for good outcomes and to see how their lifestyle behaviors contribute to good and bad postoperative outcomes, the researchers say.