Low Pressure is Necessary to View and to Protect Corona Mortis During Totally Extraperitoneal Hernia Repair

The identification of retropubic vasculature is not easy under the pressure of insufflated gas during totally extraperitoneal (TEP) inguinal hernioplasty. We aimed to present the usefulness of a maneuver that allows the clear identification of retropubic vasculature. Vascular anatomy on the retropubic surface in 364 patients who underwent the TEP procedure from January 2005 to September 2015 was evaluated. In patients after July 2014, the pressure in the workspace was decreased from 14 to 8 mmHg before fixation of the mesh to clearly identify the veins. The results before and after July 2014 were compared. Demographic features were not significantly different between two periods. The number of hemipelvises in the first and second periods was 398 and 77, respectively. The rate of identification of venous corona mortis was 31% in the second period, whereas it was 1.0% in the first period (P = .000). The identification of thick (5.5% versus 10.3%; P = .123) and thin (22.8% versus 36.3%; P = .014) arterial structures and their sum were increased in the second period (28.4% versus 46.7%; P = .002). The rate of retropubic bleeding was zero in the second period, while it was 1.5% in the first period. During TEP hernioplasty, the pressure of insufflated gas more than 10 mmHg in the preperitoneal space hinders the correct identification of vessels on the retropubic surface. The proposed maneuver, to decrease the pressure in the workspace to 8 mmHg, can provide clear identification of all vessels, which decreases the potential risk of vascular injury.