Table 5: Summary of all studies evaluating the Ventralex™ underlay patch repair of small ventral hernias

Reference	Patients Number	Defect size	Mesh size	Fascia Closure	Follow up	Mesh-related Complications	Recurrence Rate
Hadi et al. [7]	51	1-2cm	4.3cm (66.7%)	No	12 months	-	3.3%
		2-3cm	6.4cm (33.3%)	(30 patients)
Martin et al. [8]	88		4.3cm (27%)	Yes	Median 27	2	0%
		6.4cm (72%)		days
Berrevoet et al. [12]	28	≤3cm	6.4cm (14%)	Yes	Median 25	1	14.8%
			8cm (86%)		months
Iversen et al. [10]	152	< 4cm	4.3cm (56.6%)	Few	Mean 15.6	5	2.6%
			8cm (16.4%)	months
Vychnevskaia et al. [15]	101a	< 2cm (64.4%)	4.3cm (47.5%)	No	Mean 28.5	-	2%
		2-5cm (35.6%)	6.4cm (45.5%)		months
Tollens et al. [11]	135b	< 1cm (35%)	6.4cm (100%)	Yes	Mean 49	5	8.9%
		>3cm (15%)			months
Berrevoet et al. [9]	60c	≤1cm (43.3%)	6.4cm (26.7%)	Yes	Mean 31	Not stated	8.3%e
		1-3cm (56.7%)	8cm (73.3%)d		months
Tinelli et al. [16]	51f	< 1cm (17.6%)	4.3cm (17.6%)	Yes	36 months	-	0%
		>3cm (13.7%)	6.4cm (68.7%)

^a Concomitant surgery in 4.9% of cases; ^b Concomitant surgery in 26% of cases; ^c Total of 116 patients included, but Vypro mesh used in 56 cases and retro-muscular (sublay); ^d A size 8cm VentralexTM mesh was used for 52.6% (10 out of 19) hernia defect size of 0.5-1.0cm; ^e 2-years recurrence rate of 8.3%, but only of 3.6% in the 56 patients treated with sublay mesh; ^aAll postmenopausal women had undergone concurrent laparoscopy for gynaecological pathology