To explore the risk factors of complications after hernia repair in elderly patients with inguinal hernia, and to provide evidence for preventing complications.

A total of 122 elderly inguinal hernia patients who underwent hernia repair and were admitted to Lu'an Hospital of Anhui Medical University from January 2017 to December 2017 were selected as the research objects. The basic clinical data of the patients were collected and the postoperative complications were followed up for 1 year. The univariate analysis and multivariate Logistic regression were used to analyze the risk factors of postoperative complications.

After 1 year of follow-up, 9 patients were lost to follow-up. Of the 113 patients who were followed up successfully, 21 patients had related complications, with a total incidence of 18.58%. Among them, there were 6 cases of surgical site infections (4 superficial wound infection, 1 subcutaneous swelling, and 1 mesh infection), 4 cases of postoperative pain, 3 cases of urinary retention, 3 cases of seroma, 2 cases of femoral vein vascular injury, 2 cases of postoperative recurrence, and 1 case of bladder injury. Univariate analysis showed that the occurrence of complications was related to age, adhesion degree, size of inner ring, preoperative chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ASA grade of anesthesia, and whether the contents of the hernia were completely reducible (P<0.05); The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that age, degree of adhesion, size of inner ring, and whether the contents of the hernia were completely reducible were independent risk factors for postoperative complications (P<0.05).

The incidence of complications within one year after surgical treatment of inguinal hernia in elderly patients is not low. Among them, patients with advanced age, severe hernia ring adhesion, large inner ring and irreducible hernia contents have a higher risk of postoperative complications. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on such patients at high risk of postoperative complications to take corresponding preventive measures.