Comparison of the Outcomes of Inguinal Hernia Repair with Mesh and Non-Mesh Methods

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most prevalent procedures in general surgery. Several methods have been introduced for inguinal hernia repair that focus on the reduction of complications of surgery and lowering the recurrence of the hernia. However, controversies remain among surgeons about the preferred treatment method. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of repairing inguinal hernia with mesh and non-mesh methods.METHODS: All patients aged 18 years old and over that admitted for inguinal hernioraphy in Shahid Behesti hospital in Babol during March to September 2010 included in the study. Demographic data, characteristics of hernia, duration of returning to daily activities and the type of repair of each patient entered in the checklist. All patients followed up for one year in case of any complication and recurrence of hernia. Recurrence of hernia due to ascites or due to any increase in abdominal pressure and missed patients during the follow up period was excluded from the study.FINDINGS: Among all 132 cases 129 patients were male and 3 patients were female and the mean age of the patients was 53.66±16.89 years. Forty five (34.1%) patients underwent hernioraphy with mesh and 87 (65.9%) patients without mesh. The mean time for patients to return to daily activities was 25.4±4.7 days in the mesh group and 28.53±7.86 days in the non-mesh group (p=0.048). Rate of recurrence of hernia during the follow up period was 8 cases (6.1%) that 6 cases had been repaired with non-mesh method and 2 cases were repaired with mesh method (p>0.05).CONCLUSION: Simple inguinal hernias seem to be repaired better with mesh method than non-mesh method.

Keywords

• Inguinal hernia
• Surgical mesh
• Treatment outcome