The Shouldice technique, in this report, is described in details and the preliminary results are presented. Between July 1992 and April 1995, 87 inguinal hernias were treated by Shouldice repair in 71 pacients, including 64 (901%) males and seven (9.9%)females with an average of 54 years. Most of them were primary hernias (94.3%) and were performed by residents in general surgery supervised by staff surgeons. All repairs were performed under regional or general anesthesia. The operative diagnosis was indirect hernia in 40 cases (46%), direct in 28 (32,2%) and mixt in 19 (21,8%). The average period of follow-up was 13.2 months and the global recurrence rate 3.9%. The experience demonstrated that good results were attained by surgeons who had no special interest in hernia surgery and testifies to the simplicity and reliability of the method.
Inguinal hernia; Shouldice technique