Feasibility of a Local Anesthesia Program for Inguinal Hernia Repair at a Veteran Affairs Hospital

Local anesthesia (LA) for open inguinal hernia repair (OIHR) is not widely used in the United States. An LA program for OIHR was initiated at the Dallas Veteran Affairs Medical Center in 2015. We hypothesize that outcomes under LA for OIHR are similar to general anesthesia with adequate patient satisfaction.

A total of 1422 groin hernias were performed by a single surgeon using a standardized technique at the Dallas Veteran Affairs Medical Center (2015-2019). Only unilateral, primary, elective, OIHRs were included (n = 1092). LA was used in 26.0% (n = 285) and compared with patients undergoing general anesthesia. Univariate analysis was performed by the Student t-test for continuous variables and χ² test (or the Fisher exact test) for categorical variables.

OIHR performed with LA increased from 15.5% in 2015 to 76.6% in 2019. Patients undergoing LA were older and had significantly more comorbidities. Holding time to operating room (OR), OR to start of the operation, skin-to-skin time, and end of the operation to out of the OR were all reduced with LA (all P values <0.05). Inguinodynia, recurrence, and overall complications were similar. Patients undergoing LA indicated that they were comfortable (93.0%), rated their worst pain as 2.03 ± 2.2 (of 10), and would undergo LA if they had to do it again (94.0%).

LA was associated with decreased OR times and had good patient satisfaction. Overall complication rates were similar despite a higher burden of comorbid conditions in patients undergoing LA.