Primary prevascular and retropsoas hernias: incidence of rare abdominal wall hernias

To describe the incidence and treatment of prevascular and retropsoas hernias in a large-volume general surgery practice.

Femoral hernias are considered uncommon with an incidence between 2 and 8 % of groin hernias. There are no large studies describing the subtypes of femoral hernias or retropsoas hernias, and therefore no reported incidence or standardized treatment recommendations for these hernias exist.

This study is a retrospective review of all patients undergoing total extraperitoneal (TEP) laparoscopic herniorrhaphy between August 1993 and December 2011. A single surgeon performed all the repairs. Demographics and patient outcomes were reported.

2,436 patients underwent 3,242 TEP repairs. The subtypes were: indirect 1,523 (46.9 %), direct 1,473 (45.4 %), femoral 156 (4.8 %), obturator 35 (1.1 %), prevascular 25 (0.77 %), Spigelian 20 (0.61 %), retropsoas 3 (0.09 %). Prevascular hernias accounted for 16 % of femoral hernias. Patients with prevascular hernias had a mean age of 70.3 years and were all male. 13 of the 25 patients (52 %) with prevascular hernias had other associated defects and four (16 %) of the patients had prevascular hernias as a recurrence from a prior hernia operation. There were three patients with retropsoas hernias that only would not have been seen from an anterior open approach. There are no intraoperative complications or known recurrences from this study group.

Prevascular and retropsoas hernias are uncommon, but have a higher incidence than previously believed. Prevascular hernias tend to be associated with older age and other defects. The diagnosis and management of these hernias are readily achieved using the laparoscopic TEP approach.