The Intra- and Postoperative Complication Rate of TEP in Patients Undergoing Unilateral Endoscopic Inguinal Hernia Repair Is Not Higher Compared with TAPP

Excerpt

We read with much interest the article by Gass et al. [1], in which the results of endoscopic repair of unilateral inguinal hernias using either total extraperitoneal inguinal hernia repair (TEP) or transabdominal preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair (TAPP) were compared on the basis of prospective data from the Swiss Association of Laparoscopic and Thoracoscopic Surgery. The period of time covered was from 1995 to 2006 and involved 3,457 TEP operations and 1,095 TAPP operations. For TEP, the authors noted a significantly higher intraoperative complication rate (TEP 1.9 % versus TAPP 0.9 %; p = 0.029) and surgical postoperative complication rate (TEP 2.3 % versus TAPP 0.8 %; p = 0.003). They therefore concluded that, based on their prospectively collected data, the TAPP technique was superior to the TEP technique. …