Quality of life in elderly patients after inguinal hernioplasty

Background and aim Inguinal hernia is the most frequent abdominal wall her- nias in elderly population. Surgical treatment must be aware of the cardiovascular and respiratory disease these patients are often affected by. Inguinal hernia is responsi- ble to impair the quality of life (QoL). Aim of this study was to evaluate the QoL through the Short-Form (SF)-36 questionnaire in a cohort of elderly patients undergoing inguinal hernioplasty. Materials and methods Fifteen male patients of age ≥75 years affected by sympto- matic unilateral uncomplicated inguinal hernia were included in this study. All patients undergoing inguinal hernioplasty in local anaesthesia according to the Liech- tenstein technique. The SF-36 questionnaire was adminis- tered to each patient the day before and 6 months after surgery. Global analysis of the 8 domains of SF-36 and 2 comprehensive indexes of SF-36, Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) were performed. Results Inguinal hernioplasty originated no postoperative com- plications, in particular no patients complained of chronic pain after surgery. Six months after surgery, all 8 domains of SF-36, and MCS and PCS scores improved remarkably as compared with the preoperative time. Conclusion Inguinal hernioplasty in elderly patient is a safe and effec- tive procedure. Although the major surgical stress observed in these subjects, the improvement of QoL, as attested by significantly increased in SF-36 scores, repre- sent a clear-cut indication for elective inguinal hernia repair.