Introduction: Rectus diastases (RD) are caused by a weakening of the abdominal musculature and a widening of the linea alba. Some patients are often erroneously told that they are hernias. Despite the fact that they are not true hernias, they are often associated with true hernias and undergo concomitant repairs. Robotic plication of these diastases has been gaining more widespread use in the past few years, but literature regarding outcomes remains limited. Material and Methods: All patients with RD and concomitant ventral hernia that underwent robotic repair were assessed from 2016 to present. Demographics, perioperative morbidity, and outcomes were reviewed, and descriptive analyses were performed. Results: This series consists of 14 patients with an average age of 50.7 years (range 33–78 years), 64% female, and 86% Caucasian. All patients had associated umbilical or ventral/incisional hernia with an average defect size of 7.1cm2 and average mesh size of 254cm2. Robotic transabdominal pre-peritoneal (RTAPP) repair was performed in 67% of cases and robotic extended total extraperitoneal (ReTEP) repair was performed in 33%. Two patients (17%) required conversion to open repair. Hospital length of stay was 0.7 days. There was no morbidity in these patients. At an average follow-up of 2.6 years (range 54–2122 days), the hernia/diastasis recurrence rate is 7.1%. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that robotic plication with intraperitoneal sublay mesh could be an acceptable surgical approach for RD associated with concomitant ventral hernia repair. Further investigation is required to assess outcomes in a larger group of patients and to determine long-term recurrence and complication rates.

Background Despite various resources on the subject, there remain questions regarding billing and coding hernia surgery. Recently, social media has been used to disseminate information in about surgery. The purpose of this project is to evaluate posts relating to coding through one online social media platform. Materials and Methods The International Hernia Collaboration Facebook site was queried with terms relating to coding. Inclusion criteria were post discussing coding on the site. Posts relating to coding were reviewed by at least 2 reviewers. Number of comments, main topic of question, and additional information about codes were recorded and descriptive statistics generated. Results There were 100 posts found using the search term coding of which 85 met inclusion criteria. Post ranged from 5/2014 to 6/2021. Posts were from 72 surgeons with an average of 12 responses per post. Posts most commonly related to ventral and incisional hernia (53) followed by inguinal (18), other (19), diaphragm (4), and inguinal/ventral (1). For the ventral/incisional hernia, the most common posts were related to myofascial release techniques (29) followed by mesh (6), botox (5), hernia prevention (3), other (3), robotic surgery (2), open surgery (2), rectus diastasis (2), and laparoscopy (2). Discussion There remains controversies over coding for hernia repair particularly myofascial releases in ventral and incisional and new techniques using the robot. An online social media platform appears to be a viable way to disseminate coding information and generate discussion. Further study is needed to evaluate the role of social media for coding.