A translumenal approach through a natural body cavity to repair a ventral
hernia is provided. In a transgastric approach, the abdominal cavity is
accessed via an incision through a wall of the digestive tract. A system
for the deployment of tissue anchors to anchor a tissue reinforcing mesh
to repair the ventral hernia is provided. Particular tissue anchors are
disclosed. In certain embodiments, the tissue anchors include a shaft and
a head reconfigurably coupled to the shaft permitting the head and shaft
to be in a substantially parallel loaded configuration and in a
substantially transverse deployed configuration. In addition, tissue
anchors may include biodegradable and non-biodegradable components, with
the non-biodegradable component defining spaces for soft tissue ingrowth
upon degradation of the biodegradable component.