Introduction; Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures in the world. Most surgeons now prefer to perform a tension-free mesh repair. The Lichtenstein tension-free hernioplasty is currently one of the most popular techniques for the repair of inguinal hernias. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the results of inguinal hernia repair using Lichtenstein the technique or free mesh tension over a period of two years.

Materials and Methods: Four hundred and twenty-nine patients were administered at the University Hospital of Trauma, Tirana, Albania, who underwent inguinal hernia repair with the Lichtenstein-free-tension surgery technique from April 2016 - March 2018, were evaluated retrospectively in relation to demographics, recurrence, and postoperative complications. Follow-up data were taken from hospital schedules, and recurrence and late complications were assessed in the telephone interview.

Results: In our study, the total number of inguinal hernia patients was 542 patients from these 514 were (94.84%) male and 28 (5.16%) were female. The mean age was 46, 12 years (ranging from 14-92 years). Our study recorded Inguinal Hernia on the right side in 303 (55.9%) patients, on the left side in 156 (28.7%) patients, and 83 (15.4%) patients had bilateral. We have recorded 429 (79.3%) patients, who were treated with mesh (according to Lichtenstein), and 113 (20.7%) patients, who were treated without mesh (according to Bassini, Shouldice, Desarda technique). Our study included 429 patients, their ages ranging from 22 to 92 years with an average age of 45 years, and 381(88.8%) were male and 48(11.2 %) were female with a male-female ratio of 7.9:1. (Tab.1) This gender difference was statistically significant (P = 0.004).

Conclusion: In this study shows that Tension-free hernia repair introduced by Lichtenstein remains the gold standard in an open inguinal hernia, it is a common condition among men that increases substantially with aging, and medial and lateral hernias both have common and different etiologies. Risk factors to develop both lateral and medial hernias are older age, and it is a safe and feasible surgery method with respect to 1.8% recurrence and 16.5 % overall postoperative complication rate.

Keywords: Inguinal hernia; Tension-free technique, Lichtenstein; complications.