A randomized controlled trial for inguinal hernia repair to compare the Shouldice and the Bassini-Kirschner operation.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted on 142 adult male and female patients for primary inguinal hernias by the Shouldice or the Bassini-Kirschner surgical technique. Follow-up after one year revealed 7 recurrences out of 72 patients having had Bassini-Kirschner's operation and three recurrences out of 70 patients having had Shouldice's operation (p = 0.326, NS). Six patients died during the follow-up period and two were lost to the study. At two years follow-up examination nine recurrences out of 63 patients having had Bassini-Kirschner's operation and seven recurrences out of 65 patients having had Shouldice's operation were found (p = 0.792, NS). Both operations gave the same results when performed by either a consultant surgeon or a surgeon in training. The complication rate was high but similar for both techniques (18%). Although surgical literature abounds with excellent low recurrence rates using the Shouldice surgical technique, we were unable to reproduce these results. This might be due to lack of experience.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes