Nerve injury has a reported incidence of 2% during laparoscopic hernia repa
ir. These injuries usually involve the femoral branch of the genitofemoral
nerve and the lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh. Recently, in an effort
to decrease the size of the port sites, surgeons have been using 5-mm tacki
ng devices, These devices penetrate tissue more deeply and in so doing may
injure nerves not classically at risk, such as the ilioinguinal and the ili
ohypogastric, We report the first documented injury to the ilioinguinal ner
ve during laparoscopic hernia repair, In addition, we review the anatomy an
d technique in an effort to help avoid this complication in the future.