2017 Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 65-74
[Objective] We performed a prospective comparative study of early postoperative pain in adult patients with inguinal hernia treated by the transabdominal preperitoneal approach (TAPP) or the anterior approach (AA).
[Patients and Methods] The participants comprised 89 adult patients with inguinal hernia operated on from August 2015 to March 2017. The patients were divided into two groups, the TAPP group (n=46) and the AA group (n=43). We assessed the intensity of postoperative pain using the current perception threshold (CPT) measured by a perceptual pain sensation analyzer (PainVision PS-2100; Sanyo Seiko, Yamanashi, Japan). We measured the minimum perceived current and pain-compatible current (PCC) preoperatively and calculated the innate pain intensity (IPI). Postoperatively, we measured the wound PCC, calculated the wound pain intensity (WPI), calculated the adjusted wound pain intensity (AWPI) from the IPI and WPI, and compared postoperative pain in the two groups based on the surgical technique used.
[Results] The AWPI values were 193.2 ± 27.9 and 200.4 ± 32.9 in the TAPP and AA groups, respectively, on postoperative day (POD) 1 (P=0.86), then 160.0 ± 23.5 and 138.7 ± 17.1, respectively, on POD 2 (P=0.47), with no significant differences observed.
[Conclusion] We observed no significant difference in the intensity of pain measured by PainVision between the TAPP and AA groups during early postoperative period.
