A comparison of post operative pain and hospital stay between Lichtenstein’s repair and Laparoscopic Transabdominal Preperitoneal (TAPP) repair of Inguinal hernia: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To compare the open Lichtenstein repair and laparoscopic mesh repair for direct inguinal hernias in terms of immediate post operative pain and length of hospital stay.

Methods: This randomized control trial was conducted at Benazir Bhutto Hospital Rawalpindi from January 2009 to June 2010. All patients presenting in the surgical OPD with direct inguinal hernia, ASA I/II, were randomly divided in two equal groups. Group-I, patients underwent Lichtenstein’s repair and Group-II had hernioplasty by laparoscopic method (TAPP). Post operative pain intensity assessed by VAS and hospital stay measured in hours.

Results: A total 60 patients of direct inguinal hernia were studied. The mean age was 61.48±7. The range of postoperative pain experienced was 5.55 as per VAS among all patients. In group-I (open hernioplasty) majority of patients (53.33%, n=16) experience severe type of pain where as in group-II, moderate severity of pain was reported by large number of patients (63.34%, n=19). The mean post operative pain intensity as per VAS was 6.23 in group-I and 4.43 in group-II patients. The mean length of hospital stay was slightly less (35.10 hrs) in group-I as compared to group-II (38.70 hrs).

Conclusion: There is definitely less post operative pain after laparoscopic repair but hospital stay is same in both the procedures but laparoscopic procedure does increase the cost.