The gold-standard technique for inguinal hernia repair is the open approach

Excerpt

In the manuscript, “A direct comparison of robotic and laparoscopic hernia repair: patient-reported outcomes and cost analysis” by Zayan et al. [1], is the reader to assume that the gold-standard operation for inguinal hernia repair is the laparoscopic approach? The authors examined both ventral and inguinal hernias in their analysis. The focus of my discussion centers around inguinal hernias, and ventral hernias are the subject of a different argument. The authors are to be congratulated in assessing patient-reported outcomes for hernia repairs with well-standardized tools as well as conducting adequate follow-up for up to 1 year by phone interviews in all arms of the study. …