Abstract
No data are available for the duration of surger for the various procedures currentl used in hernia repair. This retrospective stud was undertaken to determine the time required for the surgical repair of unilateral primar inguinal hernias using currentl available procedures and to show specificall that the duration of surger using the PROLENE™ Hernia Sstem (PHS) was equal to or less than the duration of surger using a plug-and-patch device. Data were collected from 1032 sequential hernia procedures performed b 16 surgeons at a communit hospital between 1997 and 1999. To gain more accurate information to compare the PHS and plug-and-patch procedures data from four surgeons who had performed at least five of each procedure were used as the primar analsis database. The two most frequentl used devices were the PHS (35.9%) and plug and patch (41.0%). The average times of surger for these procedures were not significantl different (25.4 vs 27.2 minutes, respectivel; P = 0.236). A significant variabilit was observed between surgeons in the duration of surger and there was evidence for an inverse relationship between the duration of surger and the number of procedures a surgeon had performed. Both procedures take approximatel the same time to perform.
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