High agreement between the Danish Ventral Hernia Database and hospital files

Introduction: Ventral hernia repairs are common surgical procedures and quality monitoring with a high validity is mandatory. The aim of the present study was to validate the data quality of the Danish Ventral Hernia Database (DVHD). Material and methods: All ventral hernia repairs performed in the Region of Zealand and registered in the DVHD between 1 October 2010 and 1 October 2011 were included. Eleven clinically relevant surgical variables in the DVHD were compared for agreement with data in hospital files. Results: The Region of Zealand cohort included 410 ventral hernia repairs corresponding to 13.8% of the repairs registered in the DVHD in Denmark during the inclusion period. There was 89-99% agreement between data in the DVHD and hospital files (κ = 0.75-0.99). Conclusion: The present study based on a regional cohort suggests that the DVHD can be used as a reliable tool to monitor clinical quality following ventral hernia repair.