Treating inguinal hernias: ... and is misleading

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7436.403-c

BMJ 2004;328:403-404 (14 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7436.403-c

Letter

Treating inguinal hernias

... and is misleading

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Kingsnorth has misrepresented the role of the laparoscopichernia repair in his article.¹ A clinician reading this whohas no experience of surgical options for inguinal hernia repairmay come away with the impression that laparoscopic repair haslargely been dismissed by the surgical community and the NationalInstitute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Kingsnorth reports that the incidence of chronic groin painafter hernia repair has now overtaken that of hernia recurrence,without making it clear that among the various advantages oflaparoscopic hernia repair (less postoperative pain and earlierreturn to normal activity) chronic groin pain almost never occurs.

The rare but serious complications that he quotes from the EuropeanUnion's hernia trialists collaboration were for transabdominalpre-peritoneal hernia repairs (as opposed to totally extra peritonealrepairs),² which are not currently recommended by NICE.

The article did not highlight the fact that laparoscopic repairis recommended by . . . [Full text of this article]

Paul M Peyser, consultant gastrointestinal and laparoscopic surgeon

Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro TR1 3LJ paul.peyser@rcht.cornwall.nhs.uk