Outcomes After Laparoscopic Transabdominal Pre-Peritoneal Repair (TAPP) For Groin Hernia In A Single Consultant Series

AIM: TAPP repair is an established minimally invasive approach for groin hernia repair. The objective of this study was to report post-operative outcomes after TAPP repair in a single surgeon series and benchmark these against reported outcomes in the literature. METHODS: All patients who had an elective or emergency TAPP repair of a groin hernia from September 2016 to March 2020 in a district general hospital were retrospectively analysed from the electronic care record (ECR) for post-operative morbidity, re-admission, recurrence and length of hospital stay. The primary outcome of interest, chronic post-operative pain, was assessed via telephone interviews using the European Registry for Abdominal Wall Hernias Quality of Life (EuraHS-QoL) questionnaire. RESULTS: 164 patients, incorporating 190 hernia repairs were included. 155 (94.5%) were men and 9 (5.5%) were women. The median age was 51 (range: 20-81). 160 (97.6%) patients had an elective repair and 4 (2.4%) had an emergency repair. 157 (95.7%) patients underwent a primary inguinal hernia repair, of which 26 (15.8%) had a bilateral inguinal hernia repair. 7 (4.3%) patients had a femoral hernia repair. All procedures were performed by a single consultant surgeon. One emergency patient required conversion to open to allow for resection of ischaemic small bowel, however, the hernia itself was repaired laparoscopically. 94 (57.3%) patients were successfully contacted to provide EuraHS-QoL scores. 13/94 patients (13.8%) complained of chronic pain at rest on an average follow-up of 32.7 months (range: 16-43m). 2/94 (2.1%) patients had mild pain, 9/94 (9.6%) had moderate pain and 2/94 (2.1%) patients had severe pain at rest. 131 (79.9%) TAPP repairs were performed as day case procedures. Median length of stay in those patients who were not day cases was 1 day (range=1-11 days). Post-op morbidity rate was 7.9% (n=13), however, these were minor complications (Clavien-Dindo I/II). Incidence of seroma and haematoma was 1.8% (n=3) each. Re-admission rate was 3% (n=5). Mean follow-up of patients was 21 months (SD 12.6m, range=1-43m). Two patients (1.2%) had a recurrent groin hernia during this time period and one patient (0.6%) had a port site hernia. CONCLUSION: The outcomes of chronic post-operative pain and rate of recurrence were comparable to those reported in the literature. Re-admission rate was low and there were no major complications. The majority of patients were performed as a day case.