Data of the external quality control program of the Arztekammer Westfalen-Lippe - recurrences after inguinal hernia repair. Literature and reality

The data of 90 289 patients of the quality-control program of the Arztekamm er Westphalen-Lippe have been analyzed in regard of the patients age at the time of the primary operation and in case of operation because of recurren t inguinal hernia. In both groups of patients distribution of age was ident ical in principle but transferred to higher age in recurrent hernia by abou t 3.4 years thus indicating that recurrent hernia mostly occur early after primary operation. Shouldice method showed decreasing acceptance due to inc reasing numbers of repair operations by laparoscopy and Lichtenstein's meth od. This tendency was even more pronounced in case of recurrent inguinal he rnia. Obviously the surgeons' selection of methods in inguinal hernia repai r is not only influenced by evidence based data since Shouldice repair is r eported to be superior in each report.