Inguinal Herniorrhaphy Under Local Anesthesia

To the Editor.—The article by Chang and Farha on inguinal herniorrhaphy under local anesthesia (Arch Surg 112:1069-1071, 1977) presents needed and convincing evidence in favor of this approach, but neglects what in my experience has proved to be its most impressive by-product—the financial savings realized. A recent analysis of a personal series of 140 groin hernia repairs done under local anesthesia in a manner comparable to Chang and Farha's shows age ranges from 14 to 94 years, maximum postoperative stay of six days and minimum stay of 30 minutes, and three minor complications that did not delay discharge. Like Chang and Farha, my colleagues and I have had no pulmonary or urinary tract complications and have had 100% patient acceptance. Even the two of our own recurrences of which we are aware were repaired under local anesthesia at the patient's request. Ten repairs have been done on physicians, four