TY - JOUR

T1 - Organisation of emergency groin hernia surgery across Denmark

AU - Sæter, Ann Hou

AU - Fonnes, Siv

AU - Rosenberg, Jacob

AU - Andersen, Kristoffer

N1 - Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - INTRODUCTION: A laparoscopic repair is recommended for emergency groin hernias. However, due to increasing sub-specialisation, the expertise in performing a laparoscopic hernia repair may not always be present. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the organisation of Danish hospitals' surgical acute teams in regard to emergency groin hernia care.METHODS: A nationwide questionnaire study was conducted for all Danish surgical departments performing emergency groin hernia repair and completed by the departments' administrative heads via REDCap.RESULTS: A total of 18 out of 19 departments completed the questionnaire. The overall response was positive towards providing emergency laparoscopic groin hernia repairs at all times. However, this was possible only in a minority of the departments outside daytime on weekdays, and regional differences were found. Surgical proficiency at the hospital and on-call from home varied, and only 24% of the departments could page surgeons (not on-call) to perform emergency laparoscopic groin hernia repair.CONCLUSIONS: A discrepancy was found between the wish of the surgical departments to provide laparoscopic emergency groin hernia repairs and the possibilities in today's surgical acute teams. Therefore, a reorganisation should be considered to ensure the availability of laparoscopic groin hernia repair for acute procedures.FUNDING: This study was funded by The Copenhagen Medical Society and Herlev and Gentofte Hospitals' research council. The funding providers had no role in designing, conducting or analysing the results.TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

AB - INTRODUCTION: A laparoscopic repair is recommended for emergency groin hernias. However, due to increasing sub-specialisation, the expertise in performing a laparoscopic hernia repair may not always be present. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the organisation of Danish hospitals' surgical acute teams in regard to emergency groin hernia care.METHODS: A nationwide questionnaire study was conducted for all Danish surgical departments performing emergency groin hernia repair and completed by the departments' administrative heads via REDCap.RESULTS: A total of 18 out of 19 departments completed the questionnaire. The overall response was positive towards providing emergency laparoscopic groin hernia repairs at all times. However, this was possible only in a minority of the departments outside daytime on weekdays, and regional differences were found. Surgical proficiency at the hospital and on-call from home varied, and only 24% of the departments could page surgeons (not on-call) to perform emergency laparoscopic groin hernia repair.CONCLUSIONS: A discrepancy was found between the wish of the surgical departments to provide laparoscopic emergency groin hernia repairs and the possibilities in today's surgical acute teams. Therefore, a reorganisation should be considered to ensure the availability of laparoscopic groin hernia repair for acute procedures.FUNDING: This study was funded by The Copenhagen Medical Society and Herlev and Gentofte Hospitals' research council. The funding providers had no role in designing, conducting or analysing the results.TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.

KW - Denmark

KW - Groin/surgery

KW - Hernia, Inguinal/surgery

KW - Herniorrhaphy/methods

KW - Humans

KW - Laparoscopy/methods

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36205167

VL - 69

JO - Danish Medical Journal

JF - Danish Medical Journal

SN - 2245-1919

IS - 10

M1 - A02220125

ER -