Laparoscopic transabdominal inguinal hernia repair in community hospital settings: a general surgeon’s last 10 years experience

Numerous studies have documented the laparoscopic TransAbdominal Pre-Peritoneal (TAPP) approach as an excellent choice for inguinal hernia repair, especially with an experienced surgeon. A cohort population of patients who underwent TAPP laparoscopic surgery for inguinal hernias over the last 10 years, with follow-up, were evaluated, focusing on the feasibility, safety and benefits of this procedure in a community hospital setting. Materials and methods A total of 533 patients underwent TAPP for inguinal hernias between January 2003 and March 2013 in two community hospitals in the Northeast of Italy—“Civil Hospital” in Vittorio Veneto (TV) and “Civil Hospital” in Adria (RO). Results The total number of hernias treated was 1,000. The overall mean operative time was 43.50 min (±13.2). All but three of the procedures were done on a day surgery basis. There were no conversions to open repair or deaths in our series. We had two cases of small bowel obstruction and eight relapses (0.8 %) in our series. The mean follow-up was 59.4 months (±5.6; range 3–120). No patients reported severe pain at 10 days, 21 patients (3.9 %) reported mild pain at 3-month follow-up. Over 90 % of the patients had a return of physical work capacity within 2 weeks, the remaining within 30 days. All patients were completely satisfied (numerical rating scale 10/10) 3 months after the operation. Conclusions The analysis of the short- and long-term post-operative outcomes of our experience enabled us to conclude that in an appropriate setting, TAPP is feasible, effective, safe and beneficial for patients. It should be incorporated into general surgeons’ expertise and selectively used for the management of patients with hernias, as long as adequate training is obtained and appropriate preparation performed.