Laparoscopic Hernia Repair: Tapp Versus Tep. A Single Centre Experience

Surgery for inguinal hernia is currently the most common surgical procedure worldwide, and every year over 20 million patients undergo open or laparoscopic hernia repair. Two generally accepted endoscopic approaches are transabdominal preperitoneal procedure (TAPP) and total extraperitoneal procedure (TEP). For nine years (2010 – 2018), 48 patients with inguinal hernia had laparoscopic hernia repair (TAPP or TEP) at Villarobledo General Hospital. Forty-three patients (89.6%)) were male, and five (10.4%) were female. Of these, ten had right inguinal hernia (RIH), 18 - left inguinal hernia (LIH), 12 - bilateral inguinal hernia (BIH), 6 had recurrent unilateral inguinal hernia (RUIH), and 2 had recurrent bilateral inguinal hernia (RBIH). In 33 patients (68.7%), transabdominal preperitoneal laparoscopic hernia repair (TAPP) was performed. Total extraperitoneal laparoscopic hernia repair (TEP) was performed on 15 patients (12%). In 8 patients (16.6%), simultaneous surgical procedures were performed: umbilical hernioplasty in 4 (8.3%) patients and laparoscopic cholecystectomy in 4 (8.3%) patients. There were no conversions in any of the surgical procedures. The average operative time was 77 minutes. Twenty-six patients underwent one-day surgery, 18 were in the hospital for one day, and four patients were discharged on the second postoperative day following surgery. In 7 patients (14%), recurrences occurred: in the first postoperative year - 1 patient; in the second year after surgery - 3 patients; in the third after surgery - 2 patients; and in the sixth year - 1 patient. The recurrence rate was 2 in 33 patients after TAPP (6%) versus 5 in 15 patients after TEP (33%), Chi-squared=5.91 (p=0.015). In one patient, perforation of the bladder occurred after TEP and was managed conservatively using a urethral catheter and preperitoneal drainage. TAPP and TEP had a considerable discrepancy in recurrence rates. Such discrepancy in recurrences is probably due to the higher complexity of the TEP technique and the required supervising of experienced surgeons during the learning curve.