[Current assessment of Lichtenstein tension-free hernia repair]

The tension-free hernioplasty project began in 1984 at the Lichtenstein Hernia Institute. The method consists of complete reinforcement of the inguinal floor with a large sheet of mesh, with adequate mesh tissue interface beyond the boundary of the inguinal floor, and creation of a new internal ring made of prosthesis. The preliminary report on this operation was published in 1989, with no recurrence at that point in time. Shortly after submission of the report, several recurrences were encountered. Based on the lesson learned from those recurrences, the operation was slightly modified and reported in 1991. Since then, the Lichtenstein technique has gained world-wide popularity. Outcome measures identical to ours and other authors have been achieved by even those surgeons who have no special interest or expertise in herniology. The purpose of this article is to report the current state of the open tension-free hernioplasty for the repair of primary and recurrent inguinal hernias.