Abstract

Abstract Aim To investigate the age-related incidence of incidental perioperative findings and differences in postoperative Quality-of-Life using the Carolinas Comfort Scale (CCS), in all female patients undergoing laparoscopic totally extraperitoneal (TEP) inguinal hernia repair. Material and Methods The clinical data of all female patients who underwent elective TEP repair between September 2009 and December 2023 was retrieved from a prospectively maintained institutional database. The data was divided into two groups (age ≤50 years vs. >50 years old) and analyzed retrospectively. Results There were 143 female patients who underwent TEP repair of 176 inguinal hernias with no conversion to open. Forty-one femoral and 33 obturator hernias were incidentally found in 58 patients (40.6%). Patients aged ≤50 years had the same frequency of incidental femoral hernias than those >50 years, but there was a trend towards increased incidence of obturator hernias found in older age group (P = 0.06). At 2-weeks post-surgery, the average CCS score ratio was 0.14 +/- 0.15 in the younger age group, compared to 0.08 +/- 0.11 in >50 years (P = 0.008). When looking at the eight different domains of the CCS score, younger patients (age ≤50 years) were experiencing significantly more pain when performing activities of daily living (P = 0.017), walking, or standing (P = 0.05), or taking stairs (P = 0.02). Conclusions TEP inguinal hernia in older female patients increases the chance of finding an associated obturator hernia. At 2-weeks post-surgery younger patients are experiencing more residual groin pain when performing activities of daily living, walking, or standing, or taking stairs.