Risk factors for postoperative pain after laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal repair of inguinal hernia: a prospective observational study

Postoperative pain after inguinal hernia surgery is very common and risk factors are still controversial. In this study, we aimed to determine the risk factors for postoperative pain experienced on the 1st, 3rd, 10th and 30th days after surgery in patients who underwent laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal repair for inguinal hernia. The study was conducted as a single-center prospective observational study. Patients over 18 years, had no previous inguinal hernia surgery included in the study. Patients were followed during one month period. Visual Analogue Scale was used for pain evaluation. Descriptive statistics were given and, preoperative and postoperative risk factors were detected with multivariate analysis. p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Sixty-two (96.9%) of the patients were male and mean age was 52.3 ± 14.4 years. High ASA score was an independent predictor of higher preoperative VAS score in preoperative period. Higher VAS score on preoperative period was an independent predictor of higher VAS score on 1st postoperative day. Bilateral inguinal hernia was associated with higher VAS score on 3rd postoperative day. Only peritoneal closure with suture was associated with higher VAS score on 30th postoperative day. Preoperative pain is only an independent predictor of postoperative pain on 1st postoperative day. While presence of bilateral hernia is associated with the pain on 3rd postoperative day only peritoneal closure with suture is associated with the pain on 30th postoperative day. NCT05522608.