Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair: Review of 6 years experience

Since 6 years, the totally extraperitoneal laparoscopic hernia repair has b ecome our procedure of choice to manage inguinal hernia in adult patients, especially for bilateral hernias and recurrences after classical anterior r epair. Between March 1993 and March 1999. 976 patients underwent 1259 herni a repairs by an endoscopic total extraperitoneal approach. A large polypropylene prosthesis (15 x 15 cm) is placed and covers all pote ntial defects, Follow-up on patients ranged from 6 to 79 months (mean, 39 m onths). Per- and postoperative morbidity and complications were acceptable (8.4%) and included conversion to open surgery (0.4%). bleedings (0.3%). ur inary retention (4.2%), seromas (2.7%), neuralgias (0.2%), vague persistent groin discomfort (0.4%), orchitis (0.08%) and sigmoido-cutaneous fistula ( 0.08%). Recurrence rate so far is 0.1%. This retrospective study shows that the tot ally extraperitoneal repair for inguinal hernia should have a promising fut ure because of low morbidity and low recurrence rate.