Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Jul 20, 2022; 12(4): 193-199
Published online Jul 20, 2022. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v12.i4.193
Laparoscopic bilateral inguinal hernia repair: Should it be the preferred technique?
Christos Doudakmanis, Christina Kolla, Konstantinos Bouliaris, Matthaios Efthimiou, Georgios D Koukoulis
Christos Doudakmanis, Christina Kolla, Konstantinos Bouliaris, Matthaios Efthimiou, Georgios D Koukoulis, Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Larissa, Larissa 41221, Greece
Author contributions: Doudakmanis C and Koukoulis G conceived the idea for the manuscript; Doudakmanis C, Koukoulis G, Bouliaris K and Kolla C reviewed the literature and drafted the manuscript; Efthimiou M critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Georgios D Koukoulis, MD, MSc, PhD, Surgeon, Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Larissa, Tsakalof 1, Larissa 41221, Greece. georgios.koukoulis@gmail.com
Received: January 29, 2022
Peer-review started: January 29, 2022
First decision: March 25, 2022
Revised: April 3, 2022
Accepted: May 14, 2022
Article in press: May 14, 2022
Published online: July 20, 2022
Processing time: 171 Days and 20.4 Hours
Abstract

Inguinal hernias are amongst the most common conditions requiring general surgical intervention. For decades, the preferred approach was the open repair. As laparoscopy became more popular and available and more surgeons became familiarized with this modality, laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair became an alternative. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of laparoscopic inguinal repair, with a focus on bilateral inguinal hernias. Initial reports have shown promising clinical outcomes compared to those of conventional repair of bilateral hernias. However, there are only a few studies concerning laparoscopic repair of bilateral hernias. It is yet to be proven that laparoscopy is the “gold standard” in the treatment of bilateral inguinal hernias. So far, the choice of an inguinal hernia repair technique has been up to each surgeon, depending on their expertise and available resources after taking into consideration each patient’s needs.

Keywords: Bilateral inguinal hernia; Laparoscopic repair; Open repair: Gold standard; Chronic pain; Recurrence

Core Tip: Laparoscopic repair of bilateral inguinal hernias has become a common procedure over the past few years. It is associated with less pain and faster return to daily life compared to the open repair. As yet, there is little evidence to sufficiently support that it should be the preferred technique, as it depends on each surgeon to choose the repair technique that they will use.