Laparoscopic hernioplasty in children: evaluating the learning curve

Abstract

The most common surgical intervention in childhood is inguinal hernioplasty. The aim of the authors was to evaluate the learning curve of PIRS (percutaneous internal ring suturing). A prospective observational cohort was studied including patients under the age of 18 years with planned PIRS between 2018 and 2019. Patients with urgent intervention (incarceration) or other surgical procedures performed simultaneously were excluded. The incidence of metachronous hernia, surgical time, number of conversions and complications were analyzed. The postoperative follow-up time was 1-4 weeks. A phone call check-up was performed in 2022. PIRS was performed in 126 patients (57 boys, 69 girls) with an average age of 4.6 years. The average surgical time was 26.5 min, in the case of experts it was reduced to 22.9 min. The surgeries were longer in boys than in girls (30.5 vs. 23 min). Unilateral surgeries were faster than bilateral ones (23.7 vs. 33.6 min). Initially, girls were operated with PIRS, the surgical time decreased. When trainees started to learn the procedure, the surgical time increased, then decreased again. The same trend was observed in boys. 28 metachronous hernias were found. 3 conversions and 3 intraoperative complications were observed. During the postoperative follow-up, 1 recurrence, 4 postoperative complications were observed. The phone call check-up with 92/126 patients revealed 1 more recurrence and 6 chronic complaints. PIRS is a good laparoscopic "teaching" procedure during the training, but the open procedure has still place in the treatment. PIRS is a safe procedure in childhood and can be easily learned. It is an excellent method in basic laparoscopic training by use of which metachronous hernia can be recognized. Orv Hetil. 2023; 164(7): 260-264.