title: Preperitoneal prosthetic inguinal herniorrhaphy without a relaxing incision.
abstract: A consecutive series of 276 men had 317 inguinal hernias repaired by the preperitoneal approach. Of these, 162 (59 per cent) had 194 (61 per cent) "complete" repairs using Marlex prostheses. Fifty-five of 152 indirect hernias (36 per cent) were patched similarly. Seventeen of twenty-two mixed bilateral defects (77 per cent) had a prosthetic patch. Thrity-three of forty-eight repairs (68 per cent) for recurrent hernia in forty-five men also employed Marlex. Two patients died postoperatively. Four of 194 repairs using Marlex failed. These preliminary results indicate that the advantages of preperitoneal exposure can be complemented by an initially satisfactory technic of repair using a prosthesis instead of the classic relaxing incision, which is difficult to use with this posterior approach.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D019736:Prostheses and Implants