[Treatment of bilateral inguinal hernia by subperitoneal prosthetic parietoplasty. Value of PTFE]

This retrospective study reviews 211 patients having sustained a bilateral groin hernia repair during a 3 year period. The procedure was the same for all the patients: via a Pfannensteil approach, a pre peritoneal prosthetic repair is performed, using two ePTFE patches, after resection of the hernial sacs and closure of the parietal gaps. The mean follow up was 2 years. During the post operative course, thirty seven of 211 patients sustained 10 local complications, 9 urethral catheter related complications and 11 residual pain. No prostheses infection or testicular atrophy was observed. Nine patients had recurrences (2.2% of 422 repairs). All the recurrences were due to incorrect technique, eight were successfully re operated on--Expanded PTFE is a reliable prosthetic material, easy to handle and well adapted to preperitioneal hernia repair.