Mesh Removal and Selective Neurectomy for Persistent Groin Pain Following Lichtenstein Repair

To provide uniform terminology and definition of post-herniorrhaphy groin chronic pain. To give guidelines to the scientific community concerning the prevention and the treatment of chronic groin and testicular pain. A group of nine experts in hernia surgery was created in 2007. The group set up six clinical questions and continued to work on the answers, according to evidence-based literature. In 2008, an International Consensus Conference was held in Rome with the working group, with an audience of 200 participants, with a view to reaching a consensus for each question. A consensus was reached regarding a definition of chronic groin pain. The recommendation was to identify and preserve all three inguinal nerves during open inguinal hernia repair to reduce the risk of chronic groin pain. Likewise, elective resection of a suspected injured nerve was recommended. There was no recommendation for a procedure on the resected nerve ending and no recommendation for using glue during hernia repair. Surgical treatment (including all three nerves) should be suggested for patients who do not respond to no-surgery pain-management treatment; it is advisable to wait at least 1 year from the previous herniorraphy. The consensus reached on some open questions in the field of post-herniorrhaphy chronic pain may help to better analyze and compare studies, avoid sending erroneous messages to the scientific community, and provide some guidelines for the prevention and treatment of post-herniorraphy chronic pain.

In 2009, the European Hernia Society published the EHS Guidelines for the Treatment of Inguinal Hernia in Adult Patients. The Guidelines contain recommendations for the treatment of inguinal hernia from diagnosis till aftercare. The guidelines expired January 1, 2012. To keep them updated, a revision of the guidelines was planned including new level 1 evidence. The original Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine ranking was used. All relevant level 1A and level 1B literature from May 2008 to June 2010 was searched (Medline and Cochrane) by the Working Group members. All chapters were attributed to the two responsible authors in the initial guidelines document. One new chapter on fixation techniques was added. The quality was assessed by the Working Group members during a 2-day meeting and the data were analysed, especially with respect to any change in the level and/or text of any of the conclusions or recommendations of the initial guidelines. In the end, all relevant references published until January 1, 2013 were included. The final text was approved by all Working Group members. For the following topics, the conclusions and/or recommendations have been changed: indications for treatment, treatment of inguinal hernia, day surgery, antibiotic prophylaxis, training, postoperative pain control and chronic pain. The addendum contains all current level 1 conclusions, Grade A recommendations and new Grade B recommendations based on new level 1 evidence (with the changes in bold). Despite the fact that the Working Group responsible for it tried to represent most kinds of surgeons treating inguinal hernias, such general guidelines inevitably must be fitted to the daily practice of every individual surgeon treating his/her patients. There is no doubt that the future of guideline implementation will strongly depend on the development of easy to use decision support algorithms tailored to the individual patient and on evaluating the effect of guideline implementation on surgical outcome. At the 35th International Congress of the EHS in Gdansk, Poland (May 12-15, 2013), it was decided that the EHS, IEHS and EAES will collaborate from now on with the final goal to publish new joint guidelines, most likely in 2015.

To estimate the prevalence of residual pain 2 to 3 years after hernia surgery, to identify factors associated with its occurrence, and to assess the consequences for the patient. Iatrogenic chronic pain is a neglected problem that may totally annul the benefits from hernia repair. From the population-based Swedish Hernia Register 3000 patients aged 15 to 85 years were sampled from the 9280 patients registered as having undergone a primary groin hernia operation in the year 2000. Of these, the 2853 patients still alive in 2003 were requested to fill in a postal questionnaire. After 2 reminders, 2456 patients (86%), 2299 men and 157 women responded. In response to a question about "worst perceived pain last week," 758 patients (31%) reported pain to some extent. In 144 cases (6%), the pain interfered with daily activities. Age below median, a high level of pain before the operation, and occurrence of any postoperative complication were found to significantly and independently predict long-term pain in multivariate logistic analysis when "worst pain last week" was used as outcome variable. The same variables, along with a repair technique using anterior approach, were found to predict long-term pain with "pain right now" as outcome variable. Pain that is at least partly disabling appears to occur more often than recurrences. The prevalence of long-term pain can be reduced by preventing postoperative complications. The impact of repair technique on the risk of long-term pain shown in our study should be further assessed in randomized controlled trials.