Time off work after inguinal hernia repair. Results of a multicentre prospective study.

A multicentre prospective study was conducted to evaluate the effective dur ation of time off work following inguinal hernia repair. From 1(st) October to 30 November 1997, 14 surgeons repaired 459 hernias in 359 patients, cor responding to 28.8% of salaried workers, 10.9% self-employed and 4.8% civil servants. 46% of patients were retired. Only 6.9% of patients were treated by reconstruction of the inguinal floor without mesh, 59.6% were operated by laparoscopy and a conventional prosthesis repair was performed in 33.2%. There were 0.6% of complications or modifications of the postoperative cou rse. The mean effective time off work was 17.5 days after unilateral repair and 24.7 days after bilateral repair. For unilateral repairs, no significa nt difference was observed between occupational groups in terms of effectiv e time off work, in the absence of complications. In contrast, patients of these occupational,groups presented a shorter time off work following an un complicated TAPP repair than after plug-Lichtenstein repair. In the group o f salaried workers, a significant difference was observed between patients undergoing TAPP or TEP repair and those undergoing plug-Lichtenstein repair .