title: [Use of local or epidural anesthesia in inguinal hernia repair: a randomized trial].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the efficacy and safety of local anesthesia and epidural anesthesia in tension-free repair of inguinal hernia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between January 2004 and December 2006, 269 patients underwent inguinal hernia repair were randomly divided into two groups, receiving local anesthesia (143 cases) and epidural anesthesia (126 cases). The clinical data from the two groups were analyzed retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The operation time, ambulation time, length of hospital stay and cost of hospitalization in local anesthesia group were significantly less than those in epidural anesthesia group (P < 0.05). No significant differences were found in intra-operative use of ancillary sedation drugs, postoperative recovery situation, pain scores and operation-correlated complications between the two groups. The occurrence of postoperative anaesthetic complication rate was also significantly lower in local anesthesia group (P < 0.05). One case of recurrence occurred in each group during postoperative follow-up period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tension-free inguinal hernia repair under local anesthesia is a simple, safe, economical, effective procedure and superior to epidural anesthesia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ming-Juan
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Yu-Chao
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D000772:Anesthesia, Local; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome