Vol. 3, Issue 3, Part B (2019)

Methods: This was a prospective randomized controlled study conducted in a perpheral hospital over a period of seven years. One hundred and fifty six patients of Lichtenstein hernia repair were included. Mesh was fixed by sutures and cyanoacrylate glue in 78 patients each. Only those patients were completed the follow up of 4 years were included in the final analysis.

Results: The mean operative time in suture fixation was 62.56 + 10.31 versus 52.12 + 8.68 minutes in glue fixation (p<0.0001). The intra-operative complication rates did not differ significantly between the two techniques (p = 0.7613). The post-operative pain scores were significantly lesser in the glue group [5.78 + 0.17 versus 6.71 + 0.29, p = 0.0341]. Among the suture fixation group four (12.90%) patients had chronic groin pain, at the end of four-year follow up, as compared to three (10.71%) patients in the glue group (p = 0.7342). The severity of chronic groin pain was also not found to be statistically different [5.23 + 0.09 in suture group versus 5.18 + 0.11 in glue group, p = 0.7954]. The recurrence rates were similar between the two groups.

Conclusion: The frequency and severity of chronic groin pain, and recurrence rate do not depend on the method of mesh fixation.