OBJECTIVETo investigate the efficacy of single-hand four-needle suture with sled-shaped needle three-tail fixed stitch in closure of pesudohernia sac of direct hernia under transabdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) inguinal hernia repair.

METHODSA randomized controlled trail was conducted on adult patients with unilateral direct inguinal hernia undergoing laparoscopic TAPP repair from January 2014 to January 2018 at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. A total of 156 patients were enrolled prospectively in the study and were randomly divided into single-hand four-needle suture group (trial group, 76 cases) and traditional tacking group (control group, 80 cases). In trial group, sled-shaped needle three-tail knot-free stitch was applied to the continuous four-needle suture. The sled-shaped needle three-tail fixed stitch was made as follows: straighten the tail of a 3-0, 1/2-circle looper VICRYL Rapide into a sled shape; use suture overlap method to make and tighten a single knot; thread the end of the needle into the single knot loop;knot two ends of the thread next to the first knot; tighten the second knot, leaving about 12 cm to the end of the needle;cut the end of the loop (leaving about 0.6 cm) and the other end of the thread(leaving about 1.5 cm). In the control group, a hernia repair tack was used to fix the pseudohernia sac on pectineal ligament. This study was approved by the Hospital Ethics Committee(approval number: L2014ZSLYEC-016). Operation time, pseudoherina sac closure time, hospitalization cost, morbidity of postoperative complication, VAS score and postoperative recurrence were compared between two groups.

RESULTSAll the patients completed operations successfully. There were no significant differences between trial group and control group in age [(60.2±0.4) years vs. (61.1±0.7) years)], gender (male ratio 93.4% vs. 92.5%), BMI [(25.1±0.2) kg/m vs. (24.9±0.2) kg/m ], defection area [(16.1±0.4) cm vs. (15.7±0.7) cm ] (all P > 0.05). As compared to control group, trial group had longer operative time[(34.2±1.9) minutes vs. (30.3±1.1) minutes, t=5.484, P=0.045], longer closure time of psudohernia sac [(4.2±0.5) minutes vs. (1.8±0.7) minutes, t=7.423, P=0.031], but lower VAS score (3.2±0.1 vs. 5.3±0.6, t=-3.186, P=0.015) and lower total cost [(9 897.3±104.4) yuan vs. (12 325.6±169.7) yuan, t=-3.972, P=0.023]. No severe complication and death were found in either groups intra-operatively and postoperatively. No mesh infection and relapse occurred during postoperative follow-up of 1-24 (12.0±1.2) months. During follow-up, seroma occurred in 2 cases (2.6%) of trial group and 3 cases (3.8%) of control group without significant difference (χ =1.284, P=0.799), and all were absorbed and disappeared within 30 days after local application of mirabilite.

CONCLUSIONCompared to tack fix method, single-hand four-needle suture with sled-shaped needle three-tail fixed stitch can effectively close pseudohernia sac, reduce hospitalization cost and ameliorate postoperative pain in TAPP repair, which is worth promotion.