Comparison of Postoperative Outcome in Children Undergoing Inguinal Hernia Repair Using Regional With General Versus General Anesthesia Alone: A Single Center Study

Background: Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common general surgical procedures. It has been performed under local, regional, or general anesthesia. We hypothesized that using regional plus general anesthesia rather than general anesthesia alone would improve outcomes in neonates and pediatric patients undergoing hernia repair. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study, including all pediatric patients who underwent inguinal hernia repair from 2015-2021. We divided patients into two groups. The first group was labeled "general anesthesia" (GA), while the second group was labeled "combined general and regional anesthesia" (GA+RA). We compared both groups in terms of demographic data, intraoperative outcome variables, and postoperative outcome variables. Results: 212 children fulfilled the study criteria, with 57 in the GA group and 155 in the GA+RA group. Demographic and preoperative data were comparable between both groups except for age, which was 60.3±49.4 months in the GA group versus 26.7±33.13 months in the GA+RA group (p<.0001). Outcome variables demonstrated statistically significant improvement in postoperative pain occurrence, length of hospital stay, incidence of bradycardia, and need for mechanical ventilation in the GA+RA group in comparison to the GA group with P values of 0.031, 0.02, 0.005, and 0.02, respectively. Conclusion: Using regional and general anesthesia techniques rather than general anesthesia alone is associated with a decrease in postoperative pain, length of hospital stay, incidence of bradycardia, and need for mechanical ventilation. Further studies are still warranted to validate our conclusions.