Routine ilioinguinal nerve excision in inguinal hernia repairs

Background Chronic inguinal neuralgia is one of the most significant complications following inguinal hernia repair. Routine ilioinguinal nerve excision has been proposed as a means to avoid this complication. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the long-term outcomes of neuralgia and paresthesia following routine ilioinguinal nerve excision compared to nerve preservation. Methods Retrospective chart review identified 90 patients who underwent Lichtenstein inguinal hernia repairs with either routine nerve excision (n = 66) or nerve preservation (n = 24). All patients were contacted and data was collected on incidence and duration of postoperative neuralgia and paresthesia. Comparison was made by χ2 analysis. Results The patients with routine neurectomy were similar to the group without neurectomy based on gender (male/female 51/15 vs. 19/5) and mean age (68 ± 14 vs. 58 ± 18 years). In the early postoperative period (6 months), the incidence of neuralgia was significantly lower in the neurectomy group versus the nerve preservation group (3% vs. 26%, P <0.001). The incidence of paresthesia in the distribution of the ilioinguinal nerve was not significantly higher in the neurectomy group (18% vs. 4%, P = 0.10). At 1 year postoperatively, the neurectomy patients continued to have a significantly lower incidence of neuralgia (3% vs. 25%, P = 0.003). The incidence of paresthesia was again not significantly higher in the neurectomy group (13% vs. 5%, P = 0.32). In patients with postoperative neuralgia, mean severity scores on a visual analog scale (0–10) were similar in neurectomy and nerve preservation patients at all end points in time (2.0 ± 0.0 to 2.5 ± 0.7 vs. 1.0 ± 0.0 to 2.2 ± 1.5). In patients with postoperative paresthesia, mean severity scores on a visual analog scale (0–10) were similar in the neurectomy and nerve preservation patients at 1 year (2.5 ± 2.2 vs. 4.0 ± 0.0) and 3 years (3.5 ± 2.9 vs. 4.0 ± 0.0). Conclusions Routine ilioinguinal neurectomy is associated with a significantly lower incidence of postoperative neuralgia compared to routine nerve preservation with similar severity scores in each group. There is a trend towards increased incidence of subjective paresthesia in patients undergoing routine neurectomy at 1 month, but there is no significant increase at any other end point in time. When performing Lichtenstein inguinal hernia repair, routine ilioinguinal neurectomy is a reasonable option.