1. Watchful Waiting vs Repair of Inguinal Hernia in Minimally Symptomatic Men.
- Author
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Fitzgibbons Jr., Robert J., Giobbie-Hurder, Anita, Gibbs, James O., Dunlop, Dorothy D., Reda, Domenic J., McCarthy Jr., Martin, Neumayer, Leigh A., Barkun, Jeffrey S. T., Hoehn, James L., Murphy, Joseph T., Sarosi Jr., George A., Syme, William C., Thompson, Jon S., Jia Wang, and Jonasson, Olga
- Subjects
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INGUINAL hernia , *HERNIA surgery , *HEALTH outcome assessment , *MEDICAL care research , *CLINICAL medicine research , *HEALTH surveys , *SURVEYS , *MEDICAL research - Abstract
The article discusses the treatment of inguinal hernia in men who have minimal symptoms or who are asymptomatic. The study is a multicenter clinical trial in North America, using data from the Short Form-36 Version 2 survey to compare the physical component score (PCS), pain, and other outcomes. The results indicate that, at two years, intention-to-treat outcomes were similar for watchful waiting and surgical repair. The men had been randomly assigned to a watchful-waiting strategy or standard open-tension-free surgery with mesh. The researchers concluded that watchful waiting and delaying surgery until symptoms increase is an acceptable strategy.
- Published
- 2006
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