Comparison of postoperative outcome of laparoscopic and open inguinal hernia mesh repair

Background: The surgical history of inguinal hernia dates back to Egypt, from Bassini’s repair to today’s mesh based open and laparoscopic repair. Still superiority of laparoscopic over open repair is controversial. However laparoscopic technique was reported to be better in term of post-operative pain and early return to work. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional observational study was performed in Bir Hospital from August 2020 to January 2021. Sample size was 56. Hospital ethical committee approval and written informed consent from patients was obtained. Convenient sampling was done and data analyzed with SPSS ver. 23 and Microsoft excel 2010. Results: 26 patients each were allotted to two group: laparoscopic hernia (LH) and open hernia (OH). The mean age was 50.50±17.20 years. LH group had significantly less postoperative pain than the OH group on 12, 24 and 48 hours (p<0.05). Although the vas pain scores of LH group were also comparatively lower on 0 hour, these differences were not statistically significant. The mean hospital stay after surgery was less for LH group (2.14±0.356 vs 2.43±0.356) but was not statistically significant. (p=0.286). Although more post-operative complications were seen in OH group, these were not statistically significant (p values for wound infection 0.491, for scrotal swelling 0.193). LH group had significant early return to work than OH group (13.32±2.109 vs 21.21±5.354 days) with p value 0.000. Conclusions: Laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair is better than open inguinal hernia repair in terms of less post-operative pain and early return to work.