PURPOSE: To investigate the incidence of inguinal hernia following radical prostatectomy we compared the incidence after open retropubic radical prostatectomy with the incidence after the laparoscopic and robot-assisted radical prostatectomies, and using control groups.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included all original articles on studies providing data on inguinal hernia incidence in patients treated with radical prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer. PubMed® and EMBASE® were searched on February 28, 2018. A meta-analysis was done as a weighted and pooled estimate of the incidence of inguinal hernia. The bias risk was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for cohort studies and the Cochrane Collaboration tool for randomized clinical trials.

RESULTS: We included 54 studies with a total of 101,687 patients. The estimated incidence of inguinal hernia was 13.7% (95% CI 12.0-15.4) after open retropubic radical prostatectomy, 7.5% (95% CI 5.2-9.8) after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and 7.9% (95% CI 5.0-10.9) after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. In studies comparing the incidence of inguinal hernia after open prostatectomy vs no treatment the incidence was significantly higher in the radical prostatectomy group (11.7%, 95% CI 9.2-14.2 vs 3.3%, 95% CI 2.0-4.6). Two of 3 studies showed a significantly higher incidence after laparoscopic and robot-assisted radical prostatectomies compared with a control group. Most studies of intraoperative inguinal hernia prevention techniques demonstrated a significantly lower inguinal hernia incidence in the experimental group. Inguinal hernias that developed after radical prostatectomy were primarily indirect (81.9%, 95% CI 75.3-88.4).

CONCLUSIONS: We found a high incidence of inguinal hernia following radical prostatectomy and hernias were primarily of the indirect type. The highest incidence of inguinal hernia was noted after open radical prostatectomy, followed by laparoscopic and robot-assisted radical prostatectomies. There was no significant difference between the laparoscopic and robot-assisted groups. The incidence of inguinal hernia was significantly higher after open radical prostatectomy than in control groups with some evidence to support the same finding for the laparoscopic and robot-assisted approaches. Promising results have been reported in studies of intraoperative prophylactic surgical techniques to reduce the postoperative incidence of inguinal hernia.