[Is the treatment of inguinal hernia an operation for beginners?]

The early postoperative results of 1273 operations for inguinal hernia are reported. In addition, the late outcome of 688 operations of patients answering the questionnaires was analysed according to the surgeons stage of training. In group 1, the operator was in the first two years of his training, in group 2, he was older but had not yet achieved his title as a specialist for surgery and in group 3, all are fully trained surgeons. The postoperative complications are distributed equally among the 3 groups. Wound infection was leading in 37% to recurrent inguinal hernia. The overall figure of recurrent inguinal hernia was highest in group 2 with 7.8% (14 out of 179), followed by group 1 with 5.5% (22 out of 399) and group 3 with 4.5% (5 out of 110). Early post-operative recurrence was again highest in group 2 with 7 out of 14 compared with 9 out of 22 in group 1 and 2 out of 5 in group 3. We conclude from these results that inguinal hernia may be performed by a very young surgeon in training; supervision in those who are over the first steps, but have not completed their training has to be intensified and that asepsis has to be observed very carefully.