THE EFFECT OF ILIOINGUINAL NEURECTOMY IN ELLECTIVE INGUINAL HERNIA REPAIR ON CHRONIC POSTOPERATIVE PAIN

Aim: To evaluate the value of ilioinguinal neurectomy in controlling pain after elective inguinal hernia repair. Methods: Fifty two male patients with unilateral primary inguinal hernia were enrolled in this comparative cross sectional study. They were randomly allocated to one of two groups (study and control). All patients in both groups were subjected to Lichtenstein hernia repair. Patients in study group were assigned for intension ilioinguinal neurectomy while patients in control group were assigned for ilioinguinal nerve preservation. All patients were assessed for chronic post operative pain and hypothesia. Severity pain scores were assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS). Results: The incidence of chronic pain was found to be significantly less with study group (7.7% versus 26.9%; p-value 0.05) at 6 months postoperatively. When comparing postoperative severity pain scores in both groups in each time point, we found that study group showed significantly lower pain scores than control group starting from 2nd week postoperatively. Hypothesia was significantly more incident among study group when assessed two days and two weeks postoperatively. Conclusion: Ilioinguinal neurectomy can result in significant decrease in chronic postoperative pain, however, postoperative temporary hypothesia is more likely to occur with this procedure