ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Visceral Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2025.1626717
This article is part of the Research Topic10th Anniversary of Frontiers in Surgery: Celebrating Progress and Envisioning the Future of Multidisciplinary SurgeryView all 15 articles
Laparoscopic-Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Protocol for Incarcerated Inguinal Hernia: A Paradigm Shift Toward Precision Emergency Herniology
Provisionally accepted
- Suqian Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Suqian, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a modified Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol integrated with laparoscopic repair for incarcerated inguinal hernia, comparing outcomes with conventional open surgery. Methods This single-center retrospective cohort study (2019-2024) included 200 patients with incarcerated inguinal hernia. These patients were assigned to the laparoscopy group or the open group (in a 1:1 ratio). Propensity score matching (PSM) balanced the baseline characteristics. ERAS intervention includes preoperative counseling, multimodal analgesia and forced early activities. Continuous variable: Independent t-test or Mann-Whitney U; Categorical variables: Chi-square test or fish test; Multivariate logistic regression was used for hazard ratio analysis. Results After PSM (80 pairs), the laparoscopic group demonstrated significantly lower overall complications (9% vs. 38%, P=0.007), including reduced surgical site infections (6% vs. 18%) and postoperative ileus (4% vs. 14%). Laparoscopy shortened hospital stays (3.1 vs. 5.6 days, P<0.001), accelerated bowel function recovery (16.5 vs. 26.3 hours, P<0.001), and decreased opioid use (12.4 vs. 32.7 mg, P<0.001). Eighteen cases required open conversion (15 for intestinal resection). No large bowel resections occurred. Conclusion Laparoscopic repair of incarcerated inguinal hernias integrated with ERAS protocols demonstrates significant clinical efficacy, effectively reducing postoperative complications and accelerating recovery, thereby establishing itself as a recommended standard for widespread clinical adoption.
Keywords: Laparoscopic, Enhanced recovery after surgery, Hernia, Inguinal, Incarcerated
Received: 22 May 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhu, zhang and shan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xinqiang Zhu, Suqian Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Suqian, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.