Emergency inguinal hernioplasties in a tertiary public Hospital in Athens Greece, during the economic crisis.

Background: Although the effect of the recent Greek economic crisis and austerity on the population's health and the health system effectiveness have been discussed a lot recently, data on common surgical conditions affecting large part of the population are missing. Using inguinal hernia as a model we investigated possible changes of citizens' attitude regarding the time of referral, the perioperative details and the intraoperative findings of the emergency hernioplasties.

Methods: The present retrospective study was conducted by a Department of Surgery in a tertiary public hospital of the Greek capital.