Chronic Pain after Inguinal Hernia Repair

Chronic pain is a significant long-term complication that can occur after inguinal hernia repair and can compromise the patient’s quality of life. Although this complication is increasingly recognized, much controversy still exists in the literature regarding its incidence, terminology, pathogenesis and treatment strategies. In an attempt to unify the terminology, the International guidelines for prevention and management of postoperative chronic pain following inguinal hernia surgery [1], in agreement also with the IASP (International Association for the Study of Pain) definition, proposed the following definition: a pain arising as a direct consequence of a nerve lesion or a disease affecting the somatosensory system, in patients who did not have groin pain before their original hernia operation, or, if they did, the postoperative pain differs from the preoperative pain. The pain complex syndrome of postherniorrhaphy inguinodynia includes pain...