Dan Med Bull
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Elective surgical repair of an inguinal or femoral hernia is one of the most common surgical procedures. The treatment, however, presents several challenges regarding anaesthesia for the procedure, the postoperative analgesic therapy and convalescence, as well as planning of the procedure. Local, general, and regional anaesthesia are all used for hernia repair, but to different degrees, primarily depending on traditions and whether the institution has specific interest in hernia surgery. ⋯ Despite this, the fraction of patients operated in a day-case surgical set-up varies from 6% in France to 83% in US, and in Denmark 60% of patients have their hernia repair as a day-case procedure. A day-case hernia surgery service should be organised with standardised patient records, including descriptions of surgery performed as well as letters of discharge for the general practitioner. If clinical data are stored electronically, the basis is created for valuable clinical databases like the one behind the present thesis, and they can be used both for scientific purposes and for quality control and improvement.