Laparoscopic transabdominal preperitoneal hernioplasty: results of 1000 consecutive cases

From October 1992 until September 1995, 859 patients with 1000 inguinal hernias underwent a transabdominal preperitoneal mesh repair (TAPP) in the First Department of Surgery of the Diakonie-Hospital Rotenburg/Wümme, Germany. One hundred and seventeen of these repairs were for recurrences after previous open hernia surgery. There were 76 (7.6%) peri- and postoperative complications, but most of them were minor without necessity for surgical intervention. There were no implant infections or any adverse reaction of the mesh. During the postoperative follow-up period, which ranged from 2-36 months, 11 early recurrences were observed after TAPP, but none were in the recurrent hernia group. Our results support other studies and randomized trials reported in the literature and demonstrate that TAPP is an effective and safe operative procedure especially for the repair of recurrent groin hernias.