No-suture hernia repair eases groin pain

By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hernia repair using human fibrin glue -- making sutures unnecessary -- relieves chronic groin pain in athletes with a groin hernia, according to a report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Dr. Silvestro Canonico and colleagues report their preliminary results obtained using human fibrin glue for hernia repair in 16 professional soccer players who had not been helped with standard treatments for groin hernia and who had ongoing groin pain.

"Athletes need exploration and surgical release of the nerves of the inguinal region, because nerve entrapments can cause local pain and neurological dysfunction," explained Canonico, from Second University of Naples School of Medicine, Italy.

After the procedures, which were free of complications, all the patients were sent home within 4 or 5 hours and none had to be readmitted to the hospital, the team reports. After a week, there had been no infections, no rejection of the mesh used to make the repair, or any other complications.

Only two patients, one of whom had undergone a double hernia repair, reported slight post-op pain, the report indicates. These two patients began rehabilitation after 3 days, while the other patients started right way.

Two thirds of the patients resumed full sporting activity within 1 month, and all patients had returned to full sports activities at pre-injury level by 42 days after the procedure.

After 1 year, all patients remained pain-free and hernia-free, and reported satisfaction with the results of their surgery.

The fibrin glue product is fairly expensive, Canonico told Reuters Health. "Nevertheless, the article demonstrated that the costs associated with the use of human fibrin glue were exceeded by the economic advantage accruing from the quick return of the athletes to full sporting activity," he pointed out.

SOURCE: International Journal of Sports Medicine, October 2007.