Background: Repair of Inguinal hernia is one of the most common surgical procedures that can be performed under general, spinal or local anesthesia. Selection of type of anaesthesia depends on different factors. There has been a revival of use of the local anesthetia.

Aim: This study is to compare outcome of open proline mesh hernioplasty under general anaesthesia versus local anaesthesia.

Patients and Methods: This study included 258 patients with inguinal hernioplasty who were allocated  into two groups according to type of anaesthesia used. Group I included 146 patients who were operated on under local anaesthesia, while Group II included 112 patients who were operated on under general anaesthesia . Each patient was informed about the type of anaesthesia and signed consent was obtained.

Results: Reading operating time, Group I had mean±SD of 53.15±9.44 minutes (m) with a median of 53m and a range between 33-71m , while the mean±SD of Group II was  55.41±10.57 m with a median of 57m and a range between 34 - 75 m. One hundred thirty three patients (%) of group I were discharged home as day cases while only 64 patients (%) were discharged home as day cases ( p = 0.0001). There were no significant differences between both groups regarding the duration of surgery ( p - value was 0.7) .The two groups had statistically no significant difference regarding surgical complications and body mass index (BMI). There was no mortality.

Conclusions: Local anaesthesia is a safe , quick , cost effective anaesthetic procedure for performance of the inguinal proline mesh hernioplasty . Also it the preferable anaesthetic procedure for a patients in whom general anaesthesia is contraindicated.or risky such as patients with cardiopulmonary diseases.

Keywords: inguinal hernia, proline mesh, local anaesthesia.

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Dr Hassan Khalil Melek

Al-Zahra hospital, Medical College, University of Wasit, Iraq

Department of Surgery, Al- Zahra' Teaching Hospital / College of Medicine / Wasit University / Iraq