Retroperitoneal totally endoscopic prosthetic repair of lumbar hernia

Abstract Lumbar hernia is a rare lateral abdominal wall hernia. Various surgical repair strategies have been recorded, but there is currently no unified standard. A Chinese surgeon recently revealed a novel technique for treating primary lumbar hernia called retroperitoneal totally endoscopic prosthetic repair (R-TEP). We have made a further exploration of this method and successfully used it in the treatment of secondary lumbar hernia. We successfully performed R-TEP on three patients with lumbar hernias. All patients were female with an average age of 64 years (51–71 years). Two patients each had a primary upper lumbar hernia, while one patient had a secondary lumbar hernia. With a mean operative time of 77 min (60–105 min), all operations were performed successfully. The average visual analogue scale (VAS) was 1.3 points (1–2 points) on the second day following surgery. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 2.3 days (2–3 days). No postoperative complications occurred. During a mean follow-up period of 19 months (10–24 months), there was no recurrence of the hernia, chronic pain or mesh infection. Therefore, R-TEP is safe and effective for both primary and secondary lumbar hernia. Anti-adhesive coated meshes are not required, making this a cost-effective procedure that is worthy of recommendation.