Transabdominal pre-peritoneal (TAPP) inguinal hernioplasty: a single center's experience equation of inguinal hernia recurrence

Introduction: The first tension-free inguinal hernioplasty was reported in the 70's decade by Lichtenstein and since then, it has remained the gold standard for inguinal hernia treatment because of its low complication and recurrence rate. Recently, minimally invasive techniques have acquired popularity, namely Totally extra peritoneal (TEP) and Trans abdominal pre-peritoneal (TAPP) hernioplasties have reached the same results, faster recovery, comparable operating room time and better cosmetic results. Objectives: To describe a tertiary care center's experience with TAPP hernioplasty and to analyze the obtained results. Material and methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive and transversal analysis of the Abdominal Wall Clinic database of a tertiary care center which included patients operated from April 10th, 2017 to December 11th 2019. Results: 146 TAPP hernioplasties were performed in the time of the study. The mean surgical time was 72 minutes, the global morbidity was 24.6 %; it consisted of 4 vascular injuries (2 testicular artery injuries and 2 of the epigastric artery). Two patients required orchiectomy, 12 patients developed hematoma, 10 seroma, 2 urinary retention and I patient developed superficial surgical site infection. There were no recurrences or mortality. Conclusions: Mortality tough high, was minor (Clavier-Dindo 1) and only 5.3 % required intervention. In our experience, this was a safe and reproducible technique with minimal significant morbidity. This is the biggest series reported on this topic in our country.