The use of prosthesis in inguinal hernia repair

Aims: To evaluate the use of mesh in the evolution of hernia repair technique during a period of twelve years. Patients--methods: From january 1991, to december 2002, 1306 patients 1136 men, 190 women, with inguinal hernia, with a mean age of 47.4 years old (15-98) have had an elective surgical repair. 1097 (83.9 per cent) were unilateral. 209 (16.1 per cent) were recurrent hernia. Clinical data, operative technique have been prospectively evaluated: Four techniques were used: Shouldice procedure, Stoppa operation and laparoscopic repair (TEP) in 1992 and Lichtenstein technique since 1993. Results: During the study, meshes were used in 65.7 per cent of the patients respectively 33.3 per cent for Lichtenstein, 26.9 per cent for laparoscopic repair and only 5.3 per cent for Stoppa open procedure. During the study, prosthesis rate increased from 9.1 to 85.4 per cent for primary hernia and from 10 to 100 per cent for recurrent hernias. To day, Stoppa procedure is not yet performed. Herniorraphies decrease from 91.9 to 14.6 per cent. Conclusions: "Tension free" techniques represent 85.4 per cent of all procedures at the end of the study, specially Lichtenstein operation (65 per cent) which seems to become the new "Gold Standart" in inguinal hernia repair