To evaluate the analgesic efficacy of ultrasound-guided medial transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block in unilateral inguinal hernia repair.

This study is a prospective randomized controlled double-blind trial, conducted on 100 male patients whose age ≥18 years old and ASA grade wasⅠor Ⅱ, in the People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from January 2017 to April 2018. The patients were prospective randomly divided into two groups. 50 patients received ipsilateral anterior iliac inguinal hernia-abdominal nerve block (control group) and 50 patients received medial TAP block (TAP group). The consumption of analgesics, pain scores and postoperative side effects were observed in the two groups within 24 hours after surgery.

There were no significant differences between the two groups in the time of first request for analgesics, the dose of analgesics 24 hours after surgery and the satisfaction of anesthesia (P>0.05). After the surgery, the observation group, at the time of 8 hours and 12 hours, showed lower postoperative pain score than the control group (P<0.05). There was no statistical difference in the postoperative pain score at 1, 4, 18, and 24 h (P>0.05).

The medial transversus abdominis plane block is a novel, simple and easy-to-use anesthetic method that can be used as an alternative to the inguinal-iliac subabdominal nerve block in patients undergoing inguinal hernia repair.