Implementation of the trans-abdominal partial extra-peritoneal (TAPE) technique in laparoscopic lumbar hernia repair

BACKGROUND: There is still not any standardized operative strategy that is well-accepted all over the world for lumbarhernia. We are here to investigate the feasibility of the trans-abdominal partial extra-peritoneal (TAPE) technique in lumbar hernia repair. METHODS: The TAPE technique was applied to 14 patients with lumbar hernia from May 2009 until January 2014. The surgical technique was described in details and follow-ups were performed for further evaluation. RESULTS: The mean age of the 14 patients was 68 ± 8 years, with the average BMI 25.5 ± 2.1 kg/m(2). The etiology study showed that 13 cases after surgical operations and one case after trauma. The average size of the hernia defect was 86.8 ± 46.4 cm(2), while the mean size of the mesh implanted was 275 ± 61.2 cm(2). The mean operative time was 59.2 ± 8.2 min. There was no intra-operative visceral injury in this serial of cases. There was no conversion case and all patients accepted the TAPE technique successfully. The VAS was 3.8 ± 1.9 and 2.2 ± 1.6 on POD1 and POD3, respectively. The mean post-operative hospital stay was 4.0 ± 1.3 days. The median follow-up time was 33 months. All patients returned to unrestricted movement within 2 weeks after surgery. During the follow-ups, no complication as bulge, seroma, hematoma, wound infection, abscess in surgical area and chronic pain, nor recurrence was observed. CONCLUSIONS: According to our experience in this series of investigations, the TAPE could be a feasible and easy-to-learn technique which can be applied to most of the lumbar hernia repairs.