Is Shouldice the best NON-MESH inguinal hernia repair technique? A systematic review and network metanalysis of randomized controlled trials comparing Shouldice and Desarda

Non-mesh inguinal hernia repair: Review

Hernioplasty stands as one of the most common abdominal surgical interventions. The "gold standard" treatment for inguinal hernias remains Lichtenstein mesh hernioplasty. Nonetheless, clinical practice continues to grapple with issues concerning complications such as recurrence, chronic postoperative pain, and infection. The myriad types of surgery lead to conflicting opinions regarding the superiority and drawbacks of inguinal canal plastic surgery methods. This article presents current data on the surgical treatment of non-mesh inguinal hernias, delineating the most prevalent techniques while exploring their respective advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, the researchers' experiences are analyzed in detail.

A "New" Nonmesh Technique for Inguinal Hernia Repair: Revisiting E. Wyllys Andrews and His Imbricating Operation

The use of prosthetic mesh to repair inguinal hernias has been common practice at surgical centers around the world for more than 30 years. Open tissue repairs are the alternative for patients who cannot have, do not want, or are not offered mesh. Open tissue repairs are troubled by inferior recurrence rates in most clinical trials. In this article, we will review a long-forgotten tissue repair described by Andrews in 1895. In addition, we report on our early experience with the Andrews technique for primary inguinal hernia tissue repair.

The role of cytoreductive nephrectomy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the targeted therapy and immunological therapy era: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The role of cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) remains controversial. In addition, several unanswered questions regarding the use of CN remain: Can CN provide survival benefits for patients with mRCC? Where do we place CN in the treatment sequence paradigm among patients with mRCC? How do we best stratify patients with mRCC for CN therapy?

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A search strategy was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. Studies were included only in the English language. The risk of bias assessment was made by using ROBINS-I (Risk of Bias in Nonrandomized Studies of Interventions) and RoB 2 (Risk of Bias 2) tools. The expected outcomes were analyzed by meta-analyses with the fixed-effects model or random effects model, including overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The measure of effect was the hazard ratio (HR) with a 95% CI, and sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the reliability of the final results.

RESULTS

A total of 30 studies were included in the qualitative analysis. The HR for OS was 0.55 (95% CI, 0.50-0.61), and PFS was 0.72 (95% CI, 0.66-0.80), favoring CN compared with no CN. The upfront CN plus targeted therapy (TT) group had superior OS (HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.51-0.64) compared with the TT alone group. Furthermore, upfront CN plus systemic therapy (ST) was associated with numerically inferior OS compared with ST plus deferred CN in patients with mRCC (HR, 1.31; 95% CI, 0.98-1.74). Finally, the leave-one-out test of sensitivity analysis indicated that the results of this meta-analysis were stable and reliable in the overall HR estimates for these survival outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

First, CN was associated with better survival than no CN in patients with mRCC. Second, the combination of upfront CN and TT may lead to superior survival outcomes compared to TT alone in patients with mRCC. Survival outcomes were similar between the upfront CN+ST group and the ST+deferred CN group in patients with mRCC. Exact patient selection based on baseline prognostic factors is needed to promise maximal survival for patients with mRCC.

Quality of Life after Desarda Technique for Inguinal Hernia Repair-A Comparative Retrospective Multicenter Study of 120 Patients

Inguinal hernia repair, according to Desarda, is a pure tissue surgical technique using external oblique fascia to reinforce the posterior wall of the inguinal canal. This has provided an impetus for the rethinking of guideline adherence toward minimally invasive and mesh-based surgery of inguinal hernia. In this study, a retrospective analysis of this technique was conducted in two German hospitals. Between 6/2013 and 12/2020, 120 operations were performed. Analysis included patient characteristics, duration of operation, length of hospital stay, and perioperative complications. Data were used to achieve a matched-pair analysis comparing Desarda to laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) hernia repair. Propensity scores were calculated based on five preoperative variables, including sex, age, American Society of Anesthesiology classification, localization, and width of the inguinal hernia in order to achieve comparability. Additionally, we assessed pain level and quality of life (QoL) 12 months postoperatively. The focus of our study was a comparison of QoL to a reference population and TAPP cohort. The study population consisted of 106 male and 14 female patients, and the median age was 37.5 years. The median operation time was 50 min, and the median length of hospital stay was 2 days. At a follow-up of 17 months, the median recurrence rate was 0.8%, and two cases of chronic postoperative pain were recorded. Postoperative QoL does not significantly differ between Desarda and TAPP. In contrast, Desarda patients had a significantly higher QoL compared with the reference population. In summary, Desarda's procedure is a good option as a pure tissue method for inguinal hernia repair.

Inguinal hernia – epidemiology, risk factors, treatment methods (literature review)

Inguinal hernias (IH) are widespread in the human population and occur in 27–43 % of men and 3–6 % of women. Many risk factors for IH have been overestimated in the last decade: male gender is considered the leading factor (the ratio between men and women is approximately 1:7), less significant factors are heredity (most significant for women), physical activity (more significant for men), age (peak prevalence of IH occurs at 5 years and 70–80 years), congenital or acquired connective tissue dysplasia, history of prostatectomy, low body mass index.Hernioplasty with the use of synthetic mesh prostheses remains the most popular technique for surgical correction of IH. Performing non-prosthetic hernioplasty is only recommended if mesh prostheses are not available, for example in poor countries. In open hernioplasty using mesh prostheses, different methods are used today: Plug & Patch, Prolene Hernia System, Parietene Progrip, sutureless plastic according to Trabucco, Stoppa, preperitoneal techniques TIPP (trans-inguinal pre-peritoneal), TREPP (transrectus pre-peritoneal), TEP (total extraperitoneal), however, none of them showed significant advantages over the gold standard of open hernioplasty – tensionfree repair according to Liechtenstein.Laparoscopic IH correction is represented by the TAPP (transabdominal preperitoneal) technique, performed through the abdominal cavity, and TEP (total extraperitoneal) – extraperitoneal prosthetic hernioplasty. None of them has a significant advantage in the treatment of IH; therefore, when choosing a treatment method, the surgeon should be guided by the cost of the operation and the level of proficiency in one or another hernioplasty technique.

Results of Shouldice hernia repair after 18 years of follow-up in all the patients

PURPOSE

Evaluate the long-term efficacy of the Shouldice technique performed by non-specialized surgeons and also to reflex on the quality parameters necessary to safely assess hernia recurrence rates.

METHODS

During 3 years, a prospective study was conducted in 243 adult men who underwent surgery for primary inguinal hernias by 13 junior surgeons with an interest in hernia surgery. Using local anesthesia, a classic 4 step Shouldice repair, with polypropylene or polyester, was performed. All patients were followed for 18 years. The follow-up met the nine quality criteria proposed by the authors.

RESULTS

At 18 years, 80.2% of patients were followed and only 6.5% were lost. There were 7 recurrences in the first 10 years, 5 of them secondary to a direct hernia, and the same after 18 years. The recurrence rate was 2.88%. Tolerance of the local anesthesia was excellent in 91.4%of patients and, after 3 years, the pain was considered moderate or severe in 4 patients (1.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

It is necessary to incorporate more demanding criteria in the assessment of recurrence, to give more valid results. The Shouldice technique remains a useful technique today not only in patients under 30 years of age, and in the absence of risk factors, but also in cases of intolerance, patient rejection or absence of mesh. In addition, it provides the clinical and economic advantages of being possible to perform it under local anesthesia.

Non-mesh Desarda Technique Versus Standard Mesh-Based Lichtenstein Technique for Inguinal Hernia Repair: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The aims of the present systematic review and meta-analysis were to compare non-mesh Desarda technique with standard mesh-based Lichtenstein technique for inguinal hernia repair.

METHODS

A systematic literature search for RCTs comparing between DT and LT was conducted using electronic databases and Google scholar service. Studies were evaluated for recurrence and post-operative complications. We pooled the data using fixed effects model and random effects model after assessing the heterogeneity among the included studies.

RESULTS

A total number of 8 RCTs studies were included in this meta-analysis with total number of 3177 patients divided between Desarda group and Lichtenstein group as follows: 1551 patients and 1,626 patients, respectively. There was no difference in terms of recurrence between the Desarda repair and Lichtenstein repair groups [P = 0.44]. There was a lower rate of overall post-operative complications [P = 0.003], seroma [P = 0.0004] and surgical site infections (SSIs) [P = 0.04] in the Desarda group.

CONCLUSION

DT and LT were found to have comparable results in terms of recurrence rate, haematoma formation, testicular atrophy and time to return to normal daily activity/work. DT is superior to LT in terms of reducing post-operative mesh-attributed complications, such as SSI and Seroma formation.