Our research was to evaluate whether negative pressure drainage could reduce seroma incidence in patient receiving laparoscopic trans-abdominal preperitoneal (TAPP) hernia repair.

The clinical data of 50 cases of patients with unilateral hernia admitted to the Second People's Hospital of Ordos from Feb. 2017 to Feb. 2018 were collected and assigned to either drainage group (26 cases) or control group (24 cases). A cross-type negative pressure drainage tube was placed between the mesh and peritoneum only in the drainage group patients before peritoneum suture. The data of operative time, hospitalized stay and post-operative seroma incidence was collected and analyzed statistically in the drainage group and the control group.

Of all 50 cases, 11 patients were direct inguinal hernia and 39 were indirect inguinal hernia. The average operative time was longer in the drainage group (69.04±3.49) minutes than that in the control group (64.38±3.41) minutes, however, without significance (P=0.345). The hospitalized stay were similar in both groups (drainage group vs control group: 1.69±0.09 days vs 1.71±0.09 days; P=0.904). But the post-operative seroma incidence was significantly lower in the drainage group [7.69% (2/26)] than in the control group [33.33% (8/24)] in short-term period (2 days) after TAPP surgery (P=0.032). While there was no significance in long-term period (7 days, 14 days) of comparison between the drainage group and control group after surgery [(7 days: drainage vs control: 7.69% (2/26) vs 20.83% (5/24), P=0.181; 14 days: drainage vs control: 0 (0/26) vs 4.17% (1/24), P=0.302].

Negative pressure drainage can reduce the incidence of early post-operative seroma in TAPP repair, while there is no significant effect on long-term post-operative seroma.