Background: Inguinal hernia repair is the most commonly performed operation due to a significant lifetime incidence and variety of successful treatment modalities. Recurrences have been a significant problem following hernia repair. Prosthetic materials have been used increasingly in hernia repair to prevent recurrences. The Lichtenstein tension-free repair has become dominant method of inguinal hernia repair. The advantages of this repair were its association with less pain, rapid postoperative recovery, early return to normal activity and very low recurrence rate. We evaluated the treatment outcome of tension free hernia repair of inguinal hernias by Lichtenstein technique using polypropylene mesh.
Methods: In this retrospective study, 672 tension free inguinal hernia repairs were performed between October 2011 and October 2018, using a polypropylene mesh by Lichtenstein technique. The main outcome measure was early and late morbidity, especially recurrence.
Results: Inguinal hernia was indirect in 58% of cases (390 patients), direct in 32%( 215 patients) and of pantaloons type in 10%(67 patients). Mean patient age was 48.4 years (range: 18-86 years). Median follow-up period was 2.1 years (range: 3 months to 7 years). Seroma and hematoma formation requiring drainage was observed in 4 and 1 patients, respectively. While transient scrotal swelling occurred in 12 patients. Superficial surgical site infection was observed in 6 patients, however, we have not observed acute deep surgical site infection or abscess formation in our study. There was 2 recurrence of hernia in these patients (recurrence rate:0.29%).
Conclusion: Lichtenstein tension-free mesh inguinal hernia repair is a simple, safe, comfortable, effective method with extremely low early and late morbidity and remarkably low recurrence rate.
Impact Factor
2022: 6.012
This work is licensed under a