A comparison of wound complications after inguinal hernia repair under local and general anaesthesia.

Ninety-one male patients with unilateral reducible inguinal hernia were randomly allocated to receive either general or local anaesthesia in order to compare the incidence of postoperative wound complications following both methods of anaesthesia. Forty-seven patients received local anaesthesia while 44 received general anaesthesia. Two patients (4.3%) who received local anaesthesia and three patients (6.8%) who received general anaesthesia developed various types of postoperative wound complications. Chi-squared test however showed no significant difference in the incidence of wound complications between the two groups of patients.