Laparoscopic repair of recurrent inguinal hernia

The laparoscopic repair of forty-eight recurrent inguinal hernia was perfor med without major complications in forty patients from March 1995 to May 19 99. A transabdominal preperitoneal approach (46 cases) or a totally extrape ritoneal approach (2 cases) under the CO2 pneumoperitoneum was used to diss ect and repair the entire inguinal floor in all patients, with placing a la rge sheet of polypropylene mesh as possible. The operative time took 55 min utes in unilateral type and 90 minutes in the bilateral hernia. There was n o intraoperative problems and no conversion to open surgery. Postoperative pain and discomfort varied from minimal to that requiring nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs (100 similar to 400mg). The duration of hospital stay wa s 3.3 days (3 similar to 5) and patients returned to normal activity with a n average of 10 days. Although seven (14.5%) postoperative complications we re recorded, there was no major complications included hernia recurrence, b owel adhesion and mortality during the follow-up period (2 similar to 48mon ths).