A Hospital Based Randomized Prospective Control Study to Compare the Prolene v/s Polyglactin Sutures (Vicryl) for Mesh Fixation in Assessing Postoperative Chronic Pain Using VAS in Inguinal Hernia Repair

Abstract

Background: Inguinal Hernia is one of the most common general surgical problems. Pain could be related to nerve mangling while operating. The aim of this study to compare the prolene v/s polyglactin sutures (Vicryl) for mesh fixation in assessing postoperative chronic pain using VAS in inguinal hernia repair. Materials & Methods: A hospital based prospective study done on 50 patients undergoing Lichtenstein’s repair in department of surgery at District hospital, Dholpur, Rajasthan, India during one year period. The patients were divided into two groups of 25 each as follows: patients undergoing mesh fixation with polyglactin as suture material in Lichtenstein mesh repair formed group A (study group). Patients undergoing mesh fixation with polypropylene suture material in Lichtenstein mesh repair formed group B (control group). All the patients were assessed for post-operative on the post-operative day 1, 3, 7 and also after 3 months. To grade the pain we used visual analogue score ranging from 0 to 10 considering 0 as no pain and 10 as severe pain. The categorical data were expressed as rates, ratios and percentages and comparison was carried out with chi–square tests, Continuous data were expressed as mean±standard deviation. A p-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Our analysis showed that the incidence of postoperative groin pain at postoperative day 1, 3 in both groups were similar and statistically not significant whereas the 1 week and 3 months follow up in group A and B respectively, were significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: We concluded that; using polyglactin suture material to fix mesh is a safe, simple as well as and effective alternative to the conventional usage of polypropylene sutures for fixing the mesh in Lichtenstein hernia repair.