FROM ANNALS OF SURGERY
Patients undergoing endoscopic total extraperitoneal repair (TEP) of hernias had less persistent pain and greater mobility than those whose hernias were repaired using the Lichtenstein technique.
For their research, conducted in Sweden, researchers led by Dr. Linn Westin of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and colleagues randomized 384 adult men with primary unilateral inguinal hernia to surgery with Lichtenstein using local anesthesia (n = 191) or TEP with general anesthesia (n = 193). Patients underwent operations in two hospitals between 2006 and 2011, with four surgeons participating, and the same heavyweight mesh was used in both groups.
All patients were followed for 1 year for postoperative pain, recurrence of hernias, difficulty in performing daily activities, complications, and use of analgesics. Pain was measured using the Inguinal Pain Questionnaire (IPQ).
In a paper published in the February issue of Annals of Surgery ( 2016;263:240-3 ), Dr. Westin and colleagues reported that the group randomized to TEP saw significantly less persistent mild pain at 1 year, compared with the Lichtenstein group. In the TEP group 39 patients reported such pain, compared with 62 in the Lichtenstein group (20.7% vs. 33.2,% P = .007).
Five TEP patients reported pain in the groin that limited their ability to perform physical exercise, while 14 in the Lichtenstein group reported similar pain, a difference that reached statistical significance (2.7% vs. 7.5%, P = .034). Severe pain, defined as pain affecting most activities, was comparable in both groups, with four patients in the TEP group and six in the Lichtenstein group reporting severe pain (2.1% and 3.2%, P = .543).
No significant between-group differences were seen in recurrences, use of pain medications, or specific measures of mobility, such as being able to sit or stand for more than 30 minutes at a stretch.
“Our results show a clinically significant advantage in favor of TEP regarding long-term postoperative pain, and justify the use of TEP for routine inguinal hernia surgery,” Dr. Westin and colleagues noted in their analysis. Their findings, they said, should prompt more extensive training of surgeons in the TEP technique.
The investigators noted as a limitation of their study that it was not powered to detect differences in severe pain, which could be considered more clinically relevant than mild persistent pain.
Patients’ pain outcomes may have been related to surgeons’ handling of the nerves in the inguinal tract, they wrote.
Also, they noted, the same heavyweight mesh was used in all operations in the study, for consistency, despite the fact that, after the initiation of the trial, lightweight mesh was shown in studies to be associated with less pain. Dr. Westin and colleagues wrote that their findings would be applicable to surgeries using lightweight mesh, which might further limit pain.
Their results, they wrote, suggested that TEP should be considered a valid first choice not only for the study population, which included only men with primary unilateral hernias, but for those with bilateral or recurrent hernias and also for women.
The study was funded by the Uppsala-Orebro Regional Research Council, Stockholm County Council, Swedish Society of Medicine, and Olle Engqvist Research Foundation. None of the investigators declared conflicts of interest.
