Feasibility of Transabdominal Preperitoneal Laparoscopic Inguinal Hernia Repair in Obese Male Patients

Introduction: Inguinal hernia repair (IHR) is one of the most commonly performed operations by general surgeons.
The transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) procedure became the primary IHR in many specialized centers. Surgeons
are challenged by the increasing prevalence of obesity around the world, which necessitates a reassessment of TAPP in obese patients. The current study’s goals are to evaluate how obesity impacts an appropriate inguinal hernia management plan and to assess TAPP postoperative outcomes in obese patients.
Patients and methods: Patients undergoing elective minimally invasive TAPP inguinal hernia repair in our hospital, were included from January 2021 to January 2022. And distributed into two groups according to BMI (Above and below 30). Data of interest were the patient demographics, the body mass index (BMI), smoking history, hernia type, and perioperative outcomes.
Results: A total of 40 male patients were included in the present analysis, of whom 20 (50%) were obese with an average BMI of 43.69 and 20 (50%) were non-obese with an average BMI of 25.29. Operative time was equivalent between the compared groups, with intraoperative events rates being higher in the non-obese group 5% versus 2.5% in the obese group, although this finding did not attain statistical significance p = 0.5. The length of hospital stay was marginally longer in the obese subgroup (36.5 hours versus 31.75 in the non-obese subgroup), with the finding being statistically significant p=0.003.
Conclusion: Obese patients can benefit from TAPP laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in a manner similar to those
who are not obese.