Reply To: Patient-reported rates of chronic pain and recurrence after groin hernia repair

[MarkT]

Yes…and the insufficient follow-up time (1yr for pain, 2.5yr for recurrence), which is a common issue across many studies, remains a concern too.

Since we know that many post-op complications will materialize beyond those stated timeframes, the pain and recurrence rates here are almost certainly understated.

It would be great for a study like this one, where such a high % of hernia repairs carried out in the country are covered by the registry, where everyone uses an easily trackable personal identifier to access healthcare, etc. to continue to track this sample for a longer period of time. There would presumably be much less patient attrition vs. a similar study carried out in the U.S., for example.

Of course that is expensive, time consuming, etc…but it could yield some useful and more accurate data.