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Concerns with laparoscopic repair
These are valid questions as are many others. From what I understand there are three major nerves in the area, genitofemoral, ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and who knows how many vessels and other structures that could be damaged.
I’ve noticed that laparoscopic surgery is the default recommendation of many doctors if you have hernia repair in an elective setting, whatever that suggests. One would hope that if someone is offering the laparoscopic approach, they’d know what they’re doing and how to avoid nerves in the area, and be well aware of techniques to avoid mesh related complications. To the untrained eye (like mine, just a patient) the laparoscopic TEP field of vision looks like… absolutely nothing identifiable at all. If you don’t mind watching surgical videos, watch a TEP repair on YouTube, it certainly gives you an appreciation for good surgeons since it literally looks like nothing at all. This contrasts greatly to the YouTube videos of standard open repair, where anatomy is easily visualized even by a total novice.