Open vs. Laparoscopic Hernia Repair for Unilateral Inguinal Hernia: Are There Better Outcomes with Development in Skills?

Inguinal hernia refers to the protrusion of bowel or omentum through a weakening in the abdominal wall – specifically the inguinal canal. The gold standard treatment for bilateral inguinal hernia is laparoscopy. However, there is presently no consensus in the gold standard surgical method of unilateral inguinal hernia treatment. Unilateral inguinal hernias have been shown to be effectively treated in both open and laparoscopic fashion. Intrigued by this dichotomy in treatment for the ailment, we investigated the effectiveness of both procedures over two time periods (2000-2005 vs. 2012-2017) for the treatment of unilateral inguinal hernia. The primary outcome measure that was used for comparison was recurrence rates. The 2000-2005 period exhibited a lower recurrence rate for open procedure whereas the 2012-2017 period favoured the laparoscopic technique. However, these observed differences were not statistically significant in favouring one technique over the other.