The inguinal darn
H. Lifschutz and G. L. Juler
We performed 115 nylon darn repairs in 100 patients with inguinal hernia;
61 were primary and 54 secondary repairs, with 50 patients in each group.
The Kinmonth modification of the Moloney darn was used. Thirty-seven
percent of secondary repairs were done in patients with two or more
previous repairs. Thirteen patients had indirect hernia repairs. The
follow-up on 105 repairs in 90 patients averaged 62 months. There were two
(3.5%) primary and four (8.3%) secondary repair recurrences. The six
failures (5.7%) overall were either technical errors or improper patient
selection. Three superficial wound infections (2.6%) healed without
complications or suture sinuses. The inguinal darn for recurrent inguinal
hernias appears to have a lower recurrence rate than the reported 15% to
30% following other techniques.
